The Fifth Eye
by Arek the Absolute
Summary: Four years have passed since Asmodemon the Destroyer paid Earth a visit. For four years war has ravaged the Digital World. The Grand Scheme is nearing completion; this time, the DigiDestined and the Tamers may have to settle for survival. -02/03 sequel-
1. Once More Unto the Breach

(The only thing I own here is the plot and the original characters. For the extended author's notes, please refer to my site forum.)

**Digimon: Legends**

**The Fifth Eye**

The only thing worse than a long, sleepless night is when it's brought to an end by the grey light of morning. He sat up in bed facing the window, the linen curtains making the early morning haze outside look even blurrier. He exhaled slowly, rolling his neck and letting his shoulders relax. The warm body in bed behind him stirred.

She wrapped her arms around his chest, covering them both with the white bed sheet. He shuddered at the feel of her warm chest pressed to his bare back, and the skin of his neck tingled where she kissed it.

"Bonjour," she said to him as her golden locks fell over his shoulders.

"How'd you sleep?"

"Beautifully. And you?"

He breathed in deeply through his nose and coughed. "I didn't."

She squeezed him and gently rubbed her cheek against his. "What has you so worried?"

He reached up to rub his eyes. "I don't know."

"Don't hold back now, Takeru."

He smiled. "You know no one calls me that."

"Zen it is my name for you, no?"

"I suppose so."

She looked out the window. The view wasn't very good, but the City of Lights rarely offers a bad view. "Are you happy?"

He nodded. "Of course."

"So why can't you sleep?"

"I don't know," he said. "Just stress I guess. This whole book thing is really getting to me."

"Worrying won't make it any better, silly."

"You're right about that," he said. "Catherine?"

"Oui?"

"Are you happy?"

She nodded. "Very happy."

He inhaled slowly. It was the answer he wanted, the answer he expected, but it left him strangely unsettled. He exhaled. "What do you regret the most?"

"What do you mean?"

"In your whole life, is there anything you wish you could have done differently?"

"Non. Not a thing."

"Really? Not even when we got caught out in the rain the other day?"

She smiled. "And miss out on drying you off? Never."

He snickered to himself, but said nothing more.

"Sometimes, life is best when walking in ze rain."

He sighed and leaned back against her, which made her tighten her hold.

"Takeru, what do you regret?"

"Hm?"

"Do not act so coy. You asked because you already had an answer."

"It's nothing."

"No holding back."

"Alright," he said after a moment. "I do regret one thing."

"And zat is?"

"I regret how I left things back home."

"Zen you would change it?"

"If I could."

She was quiet for a long moment. When she did speak up, her voice sounded very soft. "Do you regret coming here?"

He pulled away and turned to face her, a surprised look on his face. "Of course not! I just wish things had gone a little bit better is all."

"But if zey had, zen you may not have come and we would not have met, no?"

"It's not like that at all. You know I love you more than anyone else in the world. I would never give that up."

She nodded slowly then looked him in the eye. "So if you had ze chance to change things, you would not take it? You would be happy to lose her?"

"I…" He hesitated. It was only for a second, but it was there, the silence of indecision. "I wouldn't be happy about it. It doesn't matter though, right? It's not like you can change the past anyway."

She turned away from him. "So you regret it. You wish you still had her, yes?"

"No, that's not true!" he insisted, placing his hands on her shoulders. "I loved her, I really did. You know that about me. But now I love you, and I've never been happier."

"I love you too, my Takeru," she said with a smile. "Love is not selfish, you know. I am happy for your past love."

He sighed in relief. "Glad to hear it."

"I do worry, you know," she said after a second. "I worry zat you would miss lost love so much zat you would lose sight of ze love you have."

This time it was he that wrapped his arms around her. "That won't happen," he said.

They didn't bring it up again, but they did fight. They fought about little things and big things, about money and missed dinners, about doing the dishes and the color of the new curtains. That's what they believed they were fighting about at least. They always made up, but another fight would be waiting for them. Within a month they were once again living on opposite ends of the world. By the time this story begins—more than two years later—his greatest regret was that he lost her for as long as he did.

**October 7, 2017**

"Coming!" Davis called out, jumping up and running over to the front door. He ran a hand through his hair to try to smooth it out, but that never really did work with his hair. He opened the door with a big smile. "Hey guys!"

"Hi, Davis," Kari said with a smile of her own. She was wearing a mottled pink dress with a yellow jacket. For the first time in years she was wearing her hair short again, if for no other reason than easy management. "Sorry we're a little early."

"Don't worry about it," Davis said dismissively. He was dressed in just a pair of dark sweatpants and a light blue t-shirt: his usual attire for a day off.

"Traffic was a lot lighter than we were expecting," said Jack, Kari's husband. He was an American with shaggy brown hair, a matching five o'clock shadow and dark, keen eyes. He was wearing a red polo shirt with tan slacks and a gray woolen sport jacket. In his right arm he held their sleeping son and in his left hand he carried a satchel.

"Funny how light traffic seems when you swerve around it," Kari pointed out with a smirk.

Jack rolled his eyes. "I'm a very safe driver!"

"Well don't stand around all day," said Davis. "Come on in, take it easy."

"We can't stay too long," said Kari. "We're meeting Tai at his place to see the baby."

"Well you are a little early," Davis grinned.

"He's right, you know," Jack pointed out.

"Well it would be nice to stretch out our legs for a few minutes," said Kari.

They stepped inside and took their shoes off by the doorway. It wasn't the world's biggest apartment, but for a single guy it was more than enough. Of course some of the bachelor pad appeal had diminished since Davis' two-year-old son Masaru started living their part time. At the moment he was sitting in the living room, playing with his favorite toy.

Kari smiled. "I can't believe you let him play with those."

Davis looked at his son and shrugged. "Nothing I can do about it. He screams whenever you try to take them." He was, of course, referring to his old goggles. "Masaru! Say hi to Uncle Jack and Aunt Kari."

"Hi!" Masaru called without looking up from what he was doing.

Kari shook her head. "He's just adorable, Davis. Looks just like you, too."

Davis blushed. "Well, I guess I _am_ pretty adorable."

Kari giggled and playfully slapped Davis' chest. "Oh stop already."

"Thanks again for agreeing to baby-sit," said Jack. "I love him to death, but I can't even remember the last time we had a minute away."

"It's totally not a problem," Davis assured them. "Besides, I already have Masaru today and I figured how much harder could two kids be than one?"

"I don't know about that," said Kari. "I mean just one two-year-old can be a hassle, but taking care of two—"

"So how's the noodle cart doing?" Jack asked quickly.

"Check it out," Davis said as he rolled up his right sleeve and flexed. "Is that awesome or what? Best exercise I ever got."

"I think he was asking more about the money," Kari whispered to Davis.

"Well…" Davis hesitated.

"Steady?" asked Jack.

Davis nodded. "That's one way of putting it."

"Well as long as it's enough to keep food on the table and a roof overhead," said Jack.

"No worries about that," said Davis.

"Speaking of food," Kari began, "you do have some around for the kids, right?"

"Would you relax?" asked Davis. "I do have my own son, you know."

"Didn't you give him a whole lot of wasabi once?" asked Jack.

"Well I didn't know he'd try and eat it!" Davis protested.

"Just to be safe, we packed a few of his favorite things," Kari went on. "Oh, and he's been asleep for hours, so he should be waking up any time now."

"C'mon, you know me," Davis said with an air of confidence. "I've got this handled. Can I at least hold the little guy?"

"Speaking of waking up…" Jack nodded to his son, who was stirring. "Hey kiddo. How'd you sleep?" He only made a tired, somewhat cranky grunt. "Right then. Davis? You're on deck."

Davis gingerly extended his arms and accepted the boy. "Wow, he's gotten a lot bigger since the last time I saw him," he said. "And I hate to break it to you, Jack, but I think he looks more like Kari."

"Nonsense," said Kari.

"Well he's got your hair," Jack admitted.

"Hey there, Akira," Davis cooed to the boy. "You remember your Uncle Davis, don'cha?"

"Don't forget this," Jack said as he passed his satchel to Davis. "Should be everything he could possibly need this afternoon."

"And no scary stories," Kari added.

"Not a problem," said Davis.

"No reading them TV Guide either," Kari went on.

"Oh now you're just being unreasonable," said Davis.

"I'm serious, Davis," Kari chided.

"Honey, we both know Davis will do a great job, right?" asked Jack.

Kari sighed. "Of course. Sorry to be so uptight."

"Hey, no worries," said Davis. "I know what it's like. Just relax and let me worry about everything tonight, okay?"

"We should probably get going," said Jack.

"Okay," Kari nodded. "Thanks again for helping us out, Davis. We really appreciate it."

"Just remember that if I ever need you guys to baby-sit," Davis said slyly.

"We should be back before it gets too late," Jack said as he slipped his shoes back on over by the door.

"Y'know, if you guys have the time this weekend we should do something," said Davis.

"We'd love to," Kari said as she got her shoes as well. "How does tomorrow night sound?"

"Sounds great," Davis said, joining them by the door.

"See you in a few hours," Kari said as she stepped outside.

Jack leaned over and kissed Akira on the forehead. "See you in a little bit, kiddo."

"Bye-bye, daddy," Akira mumbled.

As the apartment door closed again, Davis felt energized. It was looking to be a pretty good afternoon off; watch the kids, order a pizza, maybe put on a movie. He'd make it look easy.

"Uh-oh, looks like rain," Jack noted as the pair headed back to their car.

"That's weird," said Kari. "It was supposed to be clear all weekend."

Miles away, Izzy had just learned he'd be working a little longer that night than he had thought. He jogged into the workshop, a part of the building characterized by high ceilings, concrete floors, fluorescent lights and hundreds of engineers and technicians working on as many different projects. This was the one place where Izzy knew he could always find his boss.

"Mr. Tanaka!" Izzy shouted as he turned the corner and skidded to a stop.

Yosho Tanaka was a man beginning to show his age. His once jet-black hair was now streaked with grey, especially along the sides and back; his face, with its sturdy jaw line, arced eyebrows and pale, biting eyes had begun to droop and fade, but the smile he always wore seemed unchanged for his whole life if one were to look at old pictures of him. He wore only the vestiges of a business suit, the coat and tie being discarded, the sleeves of his shirt rolled up and his forearms stained with grease.

"Mr. Tanaka, we've got a problem," Izzy went on as he ran up to his superior.

"I should say we do," he nodded. "Everyone has to wear goggles in the workshop, no exceptions."

Knowing that was as far as he'd get without doing as he was told, Izzy reached into his pocket, fished out his safety goggles and held them over his eyes.

"Now then, what was so urgent, Mr. Izumi?" asked Mr. Tanaka.

"We've got an incoming," Izzy whispered, still trying to catch his breath. "Should be any time now, somewhere inside the city."

"I see," Mr. Tanaka nodded slowly. "Didn't our projections indicate we had another month?"

"Well there's no mistaking it," Izzy went on. "Things must be even worse than we thought they were."

"Indeed. Well, no time for regrets now. Have you managed to integrate that little program of yours into our system yet?"

"The Yuggoth?" Izzy shook his head. "It's still not ready for a live test. The only thing we'd do is burn out our own servers."

"Well then, I suppose we'll have to wait for our guest to show up before we can put our countermeasures into action."

"I really don't think that's a good idea," Izzy cautioned. "We need to alert the SDF and let them take care of it until we can get the Yuggoth working."

Mr. Tanaka raised an eyebrow. "Sounds like you don't have much faith in your own program."

"If I'd been the one who wrote it, it wouldn't be so dangerous," said Izzy. "Using the Juggernaut now would be like swatting a fly with a sledgehammer."

"You worry too much, my boy," Mr. Tanaka said goodheartedly. "We both know we can't have the SDF battling it out in the streets with civilians around, and until the Yuggoth is in place this is the safest course of action for everybody."

"But we've only done a single live test. There's no guarantee it will even work against a real target."

"Well then, sounds like the perfect time to find out," Mr. Tanaka said with a warm smile. He patted Izzy on the shoulder. "Come on; let's go tell the boys to fire up the generators. I'm sure you'll want to see your pride and joy on its maiden voyage won't you?"

Davis had finally gotten comfortable again when there was a knock at the door. Not expecting anyone, he hesitated for a second. He shrugged and stood up again with a grunt; while pushing around a noodle cart was great for his muscles, the strain on his back was something he hadn't counted on.

"Cody?" he asked as he opened the door.

"Hi Davis," said Cody, his one-year-old daughter Mei in one arm and a duffel bag brimming with Kendo equipment in the other. "Could I ask a teensy favor?"

Davis narrowed his eyes and bit his lower lip. "What sort of favor?" he asked smoothly.

"Nothing too big," Cody said hesitantly. "You see, Tomoko is teaching kendo down at the police academy today."

Davis nodded. "Uh-huh."

"She grabbed the wrong bag on her way out though," Cody went on. "So now I have to bring the right one down to her."

Davis arched his eyebrow. "I see."

"And so, I was kind of hoping I could get you to watch Mei until I get back."

"Well…" Davis peered back into his apartment. The boys were quietly playing in the middle of the carpet. "I guess one more couldn't hurt. You're sure it won't take too long?"

"I promise to be back as soon as I possibly can," Cody said humbly.

"Ah, you're okay," Davis said with a grin. "Say hi for me. Oh, and if you get roped into a match with her, try not to get your butt kicked this time."

Cody blushed. "I'll…try not to."

By the time Jack and Kari had made it to Tai's apartment the rain had already started to fall. It was a heavy drizzle, but it only hovered over a small part of town, which accounted for the bright orange sky and the rainbow to the east. They were just happy to be inside for it, but it did raise a few worries.

"Anyone still feel like trudging to the restaurant in this?" Jack asked as he peered out the window for the seventh time.

Naturally enough, he got no responses. Fortunately, he had Kari there with him to change the subject. "Li is absolutely adorable," she said to the proud parents. "I can't believe that hair of his."

"The doctor said she couldn't either," Min said with a little laugh. She was Tai's wife and as of three months earlier a new mother. She was Chinese, though born and raised in Japan. She stood more than six inches shorter than Tai and had a swarthy complexion with black, shoulder-length hair drawn back into a ponytail. She was wearing a floral blouse and a pair of jeans.

"Taking after me already I guess," Tai said with a grin, scratching at his own, typically shaggy mane. Admittedly it was nowhere near as long as it had once been, but there still seemed to be no taming it. He was sitting with Min on the couch opposing the chair Kari had taken to and was dressed in baggy brown shorts and a blue windbreaker with a star insignia over the left breast.

"Well I'm just glad we could finally make it down," said Kari.

"You made it for the birth though, so it's no problem," Tai pointed out to his little sister.

"I know, but it's nice to get together when everyone's a little more relaxed is all."

"So how was the drive down?" asked Min.

"Oh, it wasn't too bad," said Kari. "Nice view of the ocean, good weather, and Akira slept the whole way."

"I made amazing time," said Jack.

Tai spun around on the sofa to talk to him. "Yeah? You find a shortcut or something?"

"Nah, it's all about just knowing how to drive," said Jack.

Min rolled her eyes at Kari. "Mention fast cars and men just turn into boys, don't they?"

"At least you didn't have to ride with one," said Kari. "Can you believe he wanted a high-five for passing a truck?"

"Hey, you have to admit I timed it just right," Jack defended himself.

"I didn't even get a high-five for passing a person out of my body," Kari shot back.

"You ever notice it always seems to come back to that?" Tai asked Jack. "I swear if you even mention babies, women just go nuts."

"Tell you what," said Min. "If you give birth to a car, you can talk about it all you want and I'll never complain. How's that sound?" They shared a laugh over that one, though the girls seemed to laugh a little louder.

"So Tai," Kari began after a few seconds. "What's my big brother think of being a daddy?"

Tai turned back to Kari and thought for a moment before answering. "Well…I've had about five hours of sleep this whole week, the apartment has never smelled worse, and I have less and less time in the day to do my job. All in all, though, I'd have to say I'm pretty happy."

Kari smiled. "I'm glad to hear it."

"You know, Kari," Tai went on, "when you first told me you were pregnant, I thought you were still too young for it. Even I still felt too young for it."

"You always have been watching out for me," Kari added.

"Yeah, but I think I get it now," said Tai. "It really does change everything."

"Hey I know," Min said suddenly. "Tai, why don't you take Jack and Kari to our favorite place?"

"Where's that?" asked Kari.

"Oh it's this nice little restaurant just down on the corner," Min explained. "It's fast and it's close, so you shouldn't have any problem with the rain."

"That and the fact that it's cheap are what make it our favorite place," Tai added.

"Sounds like a plan to me," Jack said with a shrug. "Kari? What do you think?"

"Well, I am getting a little hungry," said Kari.

"Perfect," said Tai. "Min, you want to grab Li and come along?"

"No thanks," she said. "I think I'll just stay here with the baby and try to get a nap in."

"Want us to bring you something?" asked Tai.

"I'd love that. Just get me my usual."

Jack heard the low rumble of thunder. "Well I think we'd better hurry if we want to beat this storm."

There was another knock at Davis' door, but this time he knew what to expect, though it did seem like the pizza guy had gotten there a lot faster than usual. He grabbed the money off his kitchen counter and ran to the front door.

"Hi Davis!" TK greeted him when he opened the door.

Davis looked at TK, then at the seventeen-month-old boy in his arms. "Well this is familiar," he muttered.

"Thanks for doing this, Davis," TK began. "I wish I could stay but I really need to make sure I get down there on time."

"What?" asked Davis.

TK eyed him. "You didn't forget, did you?"

"Uhh…no?"

TK shook his head. "Come on, we planned this a week ago. You'd take Tristan when I had to meet my publisher and I'd take Masaru when you and Hoshi were both working."

Davis slapped his forehead. "I can't believe I forgot."

"Well I can," said TK. "Come on, I know this is your day off, so I don't see a problem."

Davis stood to the side, giving TK a view of the three children in his apartment. Mei was crying and the boys were fighting over his old goggles. "See it now?"

TK sighed. "Alright, so I'll owe you for this, but I really need to meet with my publisher right now and I don't have the time to find someone else."

"What about Matt and Sora?" Davis suggested.

"In this weather?" asked TK. "It'll take all night to get there and back."

"Cody?" Davis suggested. "No, he's gone. Well there's Tai and—no, they've got company. You could always try—no, they're all the way over in Tamachi. You know what? Everyone is too spread out; the whole system's breaking down!"

"Davis, I really don't have time for—"

"Your mom!" Davis said in a stroke of brilliance. "She _loves_ kids, right? Not that I don't, but I've kind of got my hands full, see, and I really don't think I could handle any more—"

"Davis, really, I just need you to take him for a couple hours," TK insisted. "I promise I'll be back then and if you want I can even lend you a hand with all this, but I have to meet with my publisher right now and I can't do it with my son strapped to my chest."

Davis' head slumped forward. He was beaten and he knew it. "Alright, but this is where I draw the line, okay?"

"Fine."

As crazy as things were getting at Davis' apartment, he would not have envied Izzy's problems. He and his boss had gathered their team in the single largest lab on company property, which had been entirely dedicated to their pet project. The lighting was kept low except for a few dozen monitors burned brightly. One entire wall was lined with servers, each humming constantly. Izzy never did like this lab much, mostly because it was always too humid, no matter what they did. This was the first time in months that he'd seen it so busy, and this was the first time he'd see it used for its intended purpose. He found himself with a serious case of butterflies in his stomach.

"Are we tracking yet?" Mr. Tanaka asked, leaning over someone's shoulder.

"The signal keeps fading in and out," said the man. "You were right about the origin point though—our test site was the initial point of incursion. It hasn't emerged yet though. Izzy, can you get satellite imaging? That might give us something to go on."

"Working on it," said Izzy, who was at the next terminal over.

"Take it easy, now," Mr. Tanaka said calmly. "It's no different from the drills, everyone. Except this time we can't have any mistakes."

"Damn," Izzy said in frustration. "The satellite's got nothing with this storm moving in."

"That's alright," said Mr. Tanaka. "We shouldn't expect much until it emerges anyway. Any readings from our other incursion points?"

"We've got nothing," said another team member. "There's no activity through any known incursion points other than the Tokyo Bay test site."

"Well keep an eye out," said Mr. Tanaka. "We don't want a second signal sneaking in while we're watching this one. Mr. Izumi, I need you to check the generators. We'll be trying this at five percent, but we're going to need reserves in case we need to go higher."

"Mr. Tanaka, I don't think we're ready for this," Izzy reiterated. "Even at five percent the Juggernaut will open up another incursion point."

"Then we'll need to get the Yuggoth working as soon as we can, won't we?" asked Mr. Tanaka. "I know it's not a perfect solution, Mr. Izumi, but it's better than letting things get out of hand. How is our charge looking?"

"Seven percent and climbing," said Izzy.

"And the target?"

"Still hasn't emerged," said another technician. "Do you think it can't? It almost seems to be stuck between worlds."

Mr. Tanaka smiled. "Well if it can't then drinks are on me tonight. If it can, though, we'd better be ready for it."

Minutes ticked away one after another as the storm slowly rolled in from the bay. Izzy stared at his monitor almost unblinkingly, gnawing on his thumb and taking in what he could of the data that was pouring in from the first digimon to cross over in over four years. As nervous as he was, he was more excited than he had been in a long time. This could only mean that he was one step closer to finding a way to reopen the gate intentionally; one step closer to going back, to seeing Tentomon and all the others. His dream for the past fourteen years was finally within arm's reach.

Around the city, of course, things remained pretty calm. A little rain was unexpected, but not exactly a rare thing for fall. It wasn't even much of a concern for Tai, Jack and Kari as they made it down to the restaurant. It was crowded, which wasn't helped by the fact that it was a small space to begin with. Still, Tai managed to get the three of them a table that was clearly meant for just two. Of course they weren't there for the atmosphere; it was the food that had Tai telling them about it. They'd hardly sat down before they found three bowls of rice plopped down in front of them, and they didn't have time to finish that before their orders were ready. It was fast, good, and cheap, which Tai liked enough to order a bottle of sake for the table.

Davis' problems were a lot more domestic by comparison. While some of his friends were dining out or saving the world, there he was trying to watch four kids and failing. His half-eaten pizza sat abandoned on the coffee table, the movie was running but ignored, and it was all drowned out by fighting and screaming. This was the sound Jun heard when she answered her phone.

"Hi Jun," Davis said as though nothing were wrong. He held the phone with one hand while jingling his keys in front of Tristan with the other.

"Davis?" Jun asked on the other end. "What is going on over there?"

"Oh, you know the usual."

"I can barely hear you!"

"Must be the reception," Davis said quickly. "Hey, you used to do a lot of babysitting in high school, right?"

"A lot?" she asked, now distracted from her original question. "Try every day, and mom and dad never even paid me for it. Can you believe that?"

"What? No! I don't mean me!" Davis corrected her. "I mean, y'know, actual babies."

"Do you not remember how you were as a kid?" she asked.

"You're not helping! Look, I've got a babysitting question."

"Okay, what do you want to know?"

"Could you come over here and help me?"

There was a moment of silence on the other hand, though certainly not in Davis' apartment. "That's not really a babysitting question, Davis."

"Sure it is! It's a _question_ about you coming over and _babysitting_."

"I'm sure you can handle Masaru all by yourself," Jun assured him. "I mean you've done alright so far. Well, except for that time with the wasabi…"

"Would people stop bringing that up already?" asked Davis. "Besides, I can handle Masaru fine when it's just him, but now he's teamed up with the other three and they're working against me."

"Wait, other three?" asked Jun. "What happened?"

"I got suckered," said Davis. "So come on, I need your help already!"

"Davis, do you remember when I was sixteen and went to the school dance with Shiro?"

"No…"

"Well do you remember when he came to the door and you told him I wasn't ready yet because I was 'shaving my moustache?'"

Davis giggled. "Oh yeah, I remember that now! That was a great night, wasn't it?"

Jun chuckled back. "Yeah. You know what else is great? Payback. Goodnight, Davis." She laughed a little louder.

Davis grumbled, though he wasn't about to let her get in the last word. "Hang on, Jun. Masaru wants to say hi." He promptly put the phone up to his screaming son. So he was out of luck there, but at least he'd given as much as he'd gotten with Jun.

Just as he was hanging up there was yet another knock at the door. He just looked at it, frozen. Who could it possibly be? Neighbors complaining about the noise? The landlord demanding the rent early? What fresh hell could possibly await him beyond that door? Of course it wasn't like he could pretend he wasn't home, what with all the noise. "We don't want any!" he finally shouted.

"Davis, open up!" a familiar voice shouted from outside.

All the color drained from his face. It was even worse than he'd expected. He grudgingly tiptoed over to the door and opened it. There was Yolei holding her daughter Keiko, who was almost three. Before Yolei could get a word out, Davis struck first. "No."

He tried to close the door, but Yolei was just too quick, jamming her foot between it and the frame. "So I hear you're babysitting," Yolei said sweetly.

"Yolei, I can't take any more," Davis warned her as he braced himself against the door. "Not tonight."

"Come on, Davis. You're the only one I can get on such short notice," Yolei pleaded. "See my parents—"

"Save the sob story. I don't care what you're doing all the way over here from Tamachi. I don't even care how hard it's raining. There is no vacancy at Casa de Davis."

"Listen up, buster," Yolei said in her stern voice. "If I don't go down to my parents' store and help them, then it's going to flood in this weather. If the store floods, they lose all their merchandise. If they lose their merchandise, either they lose the store or they have to call in their debts. Now you wouldn't want me to have to ring up the tab you've been racking up for the last fifteen years, _right_?"

Davis slowly peeked through the crack in the door. "What are your terms?"

"Ken gets off work in an hour," she said. "When he does, he's coming right here. You take care of Keiko until then and Ken is all yours for as long as you need him."

Davis and Yolei squinted at one another. Already Davis was beginning to realize that this was not a fight he could win, but at least he could try for a sweeter deal. "I'm a little thirsty from the pizza," he said. "Make sure Ken brings over some beer."

"Done," Yolei said hastily.

He could get more. "And some cake!"

"Don't push it, Motimiya," Yolei warned him.

"I get cake or this door's closing right now!"

"Okay! Fine," said Yolei. "You'll get Ken, you'll get your beer, and you'll get your cake. You just make sure you keep the wasabi put away."

"Oh come on already!" Davis barked. "Did somebody send out a press release or something?"

"Do we have a deal?" asked Yolei.

The door swung open again and Davis stepped out to take Keiko. Davis and Yolei squinted at one another again. "We've got a deal," he said.

Kari stood outside under the awning in front of the restaurant waiting for Jack and Tai. "I think the rain's starting to let up," she called back to them.

"Well that's good news," Jack said, joining her.

A bolt of lightning flashed in the clouds high overhead, and the thunder from it echoed down through the dense maze of buildings a few seconds later.

"This is so weird," said Jack. "I've never seen a storm just suddenly appear like this."

"Is Tai doing okay in there?" she asked.

"Last I saw he was showing off family photos to the waitress," said Jack.

Kari rolled her eyes. "Would you go in and get him? We don't want Min waiting for dinner all night."

"I'm on it," Jack said as he pushed his way back into the crowded restaurant.

Kari continued to look up at the dark clouds. There was another low rumble of thunder and a gust of bitter cold wind. Jack was right about this being a weird storm; in fact, Kari couldn't help feeling it was a bit more than just weird. It made her uneasy. She told herself to look down at her feet, but she never did.

Suddenly, she could see a figure up in the clouds, a tiny black blur dipping just below the roof of the sky. She stepped out from under the awning to get a better look. It didn't look like a plane. It didn't look like anything, really. It continued to fall though, or so she thought. It took her a few seconds to realize that as it was dropping toward the earth it was also getting larger, diving toward her like a falcon.

The figure leveled out only twenty feet above the ground, down the street as far as Kari could see, and still it was flying forward incredibly fast, but also silently. As it came into focus Kari took a few nervous steps back. She couldn't believe what she saw, but it looked like a giant bird digimon, though something looked wrong about it. It was completely blue in color. Lightning again cracked the sky open a moment before the great bird soared right in front of where Kari stood, the gust of wind it caused nearly knocking her over backwards.

She continued to watch as it pulled back and once again ascended toward the clouds. Jack appeared behind her a second later.

"He'll be right out," said Jack. "He just needs to—Kari? Are you alright?"

"There's a digimon here," Kari whispered.

Jack looked around nervously. "Where is it?" he asked.

"It just flew right in front of me, as big as a house. I…I don't think anyone else could see it."

Kari was right. She and Jack looked at the other patrons gathered around the entrance, the people walking by on the street, the cars up and down both intersecting streets. No one seemed to have noticed a thing beyond the gust of wind.

"How is that possible?" asked Jack.

"It's happened before," said Kari. "Just before it all began back in 1999, they started showing up all over the world but nobody could see them."

"So what do we do?"

Kari shook her head. "I have no—look! Up there!" She pointed skyward. Jack immediately followed her gaze right up to the digimon, hovering high overhead.

"It's just sitting there," he said. "Kari, get inside."

"Not a chance," she told him.

"Kari it's not safe," Jack warned her.

"So you think I'll leave you out here alone?"

"Kari this is no time to argue. We need to do something before—"

Without warning the digimon let out a piercing screech. In the same instant a bolt of lightning shot straight down and struck the digimon, creating a brilliant blue flash where it hit. From that flash burst a great plume of fog that hung in the air a few seconds before dissipating, revealing the digimon, his brilliant plumage now showing all its different colors.

The sudden eruption of shocked gasps from all sides told Jack and Kari that the digimon had suddenly become quite visible. The digimon seemed to realize the same thing too, for in an instant it dove from the sky and landed hard, digging its talons into the first two cars it could find and letting out another screech.

"It's Thunderbirmon," Jack announced ominously from where he and Kari had crouched down,

Thunderbirmon was a fearsome armor digimon, about the size of a truck and carrying itself proudly with a pair of sweeping blue wings with long, lightning bolt-shaped golden feathers. The feathers around its neck and down its back were white, though its long tail was blue with golden stripes and over its head it wore a mask with the same sharp angles that the rest of its body seemed to show off.

It was chaos. After the initial shock wore off everyone was running, screaming; pandemonium. Jack and Kari had to press back against the building to stay out of the human wave while Tai found himself pinned inside the restaurant. By the way it looked, Thunderbirmon was eating it up.

"Tai!" Kari shouted into the door. "Where are you?"

"Kari!" he called back, barely able to hear her. "Get out of here!"

Thunderbirmon tossed one of the cars it had grabbed aside like it was nothing and perched on top of the second one, puffing its chest proudly and spreading its wings out wide. Electrical sparks coursed from feather to feather, sometimes latching onto nearby vehicles and traffic signals. "Spark Wing!" it shrieked.

Jack grabbed Kari around the waist and spun her around toward the building, positioning himself between her and Thunderbirmon. With one mighty beat of its wings, Thunderbirmon sent out a surge of electrical energy that scorched everything it touched, knocking out power and blowing out windows down both streets for more than a block.

"Well that sucked," Jack groaned as a thin veil of smoke wafted off his back. His hair was all standing on end and his eyes looked bloodshot, but other than that he seemed alright.

"Jack, sit down for a minute," said Kari. "I need to get Tai so we can come up with something."

"We…we should get everyone out of here," Jack told her even as she helped lower him to the ground.

"I think they're doing that by themselves," Kari pointed out as she looked around her, seeing people continue to scatter away from the invading digimon.

As for Thunderbirmon, it let out a proud call. With a few mighty flaps it was airborne again, dropping the car it still held once it was about ten feet up. Judging by the glow of its eyes, it was already charging up for another attack.

"Kari!" Tai shouted as he burst through the front door, pushing a wall of people out of his way in the process.

"Tai, Jack's hurt!"

Tai immediately bent down next to the pair. "Are you alright?"

"I'll be fine," Jack said, rubbing his eyes. "Let's just worry about Thunderbirmon for now though."

"Thunder Storm!" the armored digimon roared. With another beat of its wings a torrent of lightning bolts fell around it on all sides, blasting abandoned vehicles into the air and cracking open the street itself. Thunderbirmon celebrated the destruction with another pompous screech.

Tai crouched low with the others as bits of glass and asphalt pelted them. He gritted his teeth and waited. When he was able to look up again, there was Thunderbirmon, haughtily flapping his wings and strutting among the ruined cars, his tail feathers sweeping side-to-side. "You just wait here," Tai told the other two.

"Tai?" asked Kari. She was too late, though, as Tai was already on the move. "Tai!"

While Thunderbirmon's back was turned, Tai ran up behind him. In a few quick bounds he scrambled up onto the roof of a car and then jumped straight out and landed with an iron grip on Thunderbirmon's tail. The digimon let out a shocked squawk and then turned its head to look. Tai was already clamoring up its tail feathers, so the brute tried to shake him off with a few quick wags of his tail. Tai held on tight, and though he was left a little sickly for the ride, he wasn't giving up so easily.

Of course Thunderbirmon wasn't about to give in either; it had a new plan. It faced forward again with its wings spread wide and head hanging low. It started to run as Tai continued to pull himself along, inching up its tail. Tai's plans hit a snag though when Thunderbirmon took off at full speed, the city streets whipping below them in a blur. The digimon banked left and right sharply. Tai came within feet of being dragged along a building or two when the beast turned at a few sudden corners.

More determined than ever, Tai dug his fingers into the white feathers of the digimon's back. Almost seeming insulted, Thunderbirmon grew determined to shake Tai off no matter what; it folded its wings back and went into a spin. Though he was thrown to the side, Tai's grip held strong and thankfully so did the feathers. After a few spins Thunderbirmon had to spread his wings and level off again to keep from crashing, which was Tai's chance to keep on climbing.

The enraged digimon was ready to make a last-ditch effort to get the human off. It began to beat its wings furiously, slowly pitching upward and moving faster by the second. As Tai continued to climb he couldn't help but notice the buildings all around him quickly dropping away beneath him, but he couldn't exactly stop now. The faster and higher they flew the more biting the cold became; the wind and the rain sheared right through his jacket and left his teeth chattering. A bolt of lightning passed right next to them as Thunderbirmon climbed higher and higher, swerving back and forth on its tireless trek back up to the storm clouds.

Tai had finally made it up to Thunderbirmon's head. Slick with rain and blinded by the wind, he wrapped his legs around the beast's sturdy neck and held on tight, leaving his hands free. He reached up to his neck and unzipped his windbreaker in one swift motion. The jacket was almost ripped right out of his hands by the sheer strength of the wind blowing in his face. Even though the digimon kept rolling around, bucking and fiercely pumping its wings, Tai still had the resolve to push his torso forward again, right up to the edge of the digimon's mask. Taking his jacket in one hand, he swung it under Thunderbirmon's chin and grabbed the other sleeve in his free hand. With his makeshift reins in place, Tai tightened his legs' hold and pulled back with all his strength.

Thunderbirmon's head immediately jerked back and its whole body followed, rolling up and over before taking aim straight down again. Tai pressed his body flat against Thunderbirmon's neck as they went into the fastest part of the wild ride yet. The digimon let out a long, piercing wail as it plummeted back toward the earth. Tai was nearly flung free out into the open air, his fingers being almost numb with pain and soaking wet. As Thunderbirmon spread its wings and tried to regain control, Tai jerked its head toward the left, trying to steer it toward a street. It turned, but much too fast, going into a sharp spin and folding its wings back again. Tai fought against the weather, the digimon and the force of gravity itself all the way down.

Another quick jerk brought the spin to a stop. They had the right heading, but they were coming in fast. Even with Thunderbirmon fighting him the whole way, Tai intended to come in for a safe landing and do something about the digimon menace at the same time. For the moment, the former of those was his goal, so as they once again dipped below the skyline, Tai pulled on the reins and the digimon reared back, talons kicking away in front, wings ferociously slapping at invisible enemies and its head staring up at the sky. Unfortunately for both Tai and the digimon, this meant neither of them could see where they were going. The Thunderbirmon's talons caught on a bus and it pitched forward violently, flinging Tai from its back and landing the digimon face-first in the street. Everything went dark for a moment.

Tai found himself being shaken awake a short while later. Though dazed, soaking wet and numb from the cold, he could still make out a hazy blur and a voice. He slowly sat up, not entirely sure of where he was.

"Tai?" Kari asked as she kneeled beside her big brother. "Are you okay? How many fingers am I holding up?"

Tai rubbed his head woozily and tried to wipe some of his drenched hair out of his eyes. "…Kari?" he groaned.

Kari immediately grabbed him in a tight squeeze. "Don't you _ever_ do something that stupid again, Tai!"

"Unh," he grunted. "Don't ride the digimon, Kari."

"Tai, I need you to stay alert, okay?" she asked. "You could have a concussion."

Tai shook his head to try clearing it. "I'll…I'll be fine."

"Hey Kari!" Jack shouted from over where the Thunderbirmon had fallen, almost sixty feet away. "It's out cold! We should be good!"

"What about the ambulance?" she called back.

"On its way!"

"You hear that?" Kari asked of Tai. "The ambulance is on the way, okay?"

"Kari, I'm fine," Tai said a bit more lucidly. "Just a little bump on the head."

"Yeah right," she said. "And when you broke your leg climbing that tree it was just a bruise, right?"

"Hey, you know me," he smirked. "My skull's the hardest bone in my body."

All of a sudden, the rain stopped falling all at once. Jack looked skyward and froze; there was something there, but it seemed like a mirage. The sky overhead started to twist and turn in on itself, and then there was an explosion of light.

Kari and Tai covered their eyes as the whole street was washed over with a red glow. A shimmering hole had opened in the sky about eighty feet directly above Thunderbirmon. It flickered sporadically between shades of yellow and orange and almost completely white, casting heavy shadows on anything its light did not reach. As they looked on in awe, everything not cemented down began to be drawn upward toward the burning maw. Glass, cars, debris, garbage, and Thunderbirmon himself all slowly began ascending. Unfortunately, what applied to all those things applied to Jack as well. As his feet left the pavement he scrambled to grab onto anything he could.

Tai and Kari took off running at almost the same instant, but Tai's aching body and dazed mind kept him from keeping up with her. Kari ran as fast as she could, and when she was close enough she ran up onto the roof of a car and jumped to Jack's outstretched hand. She caught him and the two sunk back toward the ground. That is to say, they sunk by about a foot, but then they kept right on rising amidst a tangled mess of debris.

"Tai!" Kari shouted to her big brother.

The first bits of wreckage were reaching the portal's threshold just then, breaking down into a million pieces before fading away into the light. Before long the same would happen to cars, the bus, Thunderbirmon, and eventually them as well.

"Try to find something to grab onto," Jack said as he tried pushing off a taxi hovering by his feet. It didn't work very well.

"I can't reach!" Kari said as she stretched her hand out toward a stationary street sign.

"Hang on!" Tai yelled as he ran toward them as best as he could. "I'm coming!"

"Hurry it along, Tai!" Jack said nervously.

"Almost there!"

Thunderbirmon's data began to break down overhead and he disappeared.

Tai ran up the same car that Kari had used to climb up. He and his sister reached out to one another, and for a second their fingertips touched. It wasn't enough though, as Kari's hand slipped through his grasp and he fell to one knee, mere inches from saving them.

"Kari!" he shrieked.

"Tai!" she yelled back to him as she and Jack were drawn up into the unknown.


	2. Anxiety

(As per usual the author's notes can be found in my forums.)

**September 22, 2017**

The bell on the front door jangled, but Takato Matsuki didn't care; though he was supposed to be minding the store he was paying more attention to his doodling on that morning's newspaper. He was wearing his usual white baker's apron over khakis and a red t-shirt with some band's logo printed on the front. He looked like he could use a shave and his hair was messy to match, though that had always been true, and while he had to wear some kind of hair net whenever he was actually working the dough he'd ditched it as soon as he was on counter duty to let his brunette mane run free.

The front door shut again with another jangle from the bell. A casual glance upward told him that it was a woman in a dark suit and that was all he really needed to know before going back to sketching. It was the middle of the slow part of the day, right around noon when it was almost blinding to look out through the storefront windows. The air conditioner hummed away through what Takato hoped would be the last heat wave of the year, providing the background white noise that made for such a lazy mid-day shift at his family's bakery.

"What's this?" the woman asked as she leaned over a small trough.

"Super-spicy curry bread," Takato answered without even looking up; he'd had to answer that question a lot lately. "It's new."

The woman prodded the bread with a finger and leaned in for an even closer look. Takato frowned and scratched out a mistake.

"Super-spicy, huh?" she asked.

Takato sighed and slid the newspaper and his pen under the counter. He finally looked up and got a good view of the customer. She had her back turned to him so he couldn't see her face, but she was wearing a dark brown—nearly black—woman's skirted suit and her burgundy hair was pulled up in a messy bun. What surprised him was her right leg: it was bound in a full cast and she was supporting her weight on crutches.

"Is there anything I can help you find?" he asked, standing up.

"I doubt it," she said snidely.

His face flushed. "Well, I'm right here y'know, in case you need anything."

"I've got it under control."

Takato sat back down. He couldn't go over if she didn't want his help, but it wasn't like he could go back to what he was doing. He ended up just sitting there twiddling his thumbs while waiting for her to finish.

"So are you new in town?" he asked after more than a minute of silence.

She glanced his way; her face was beautiful, but her grim expression and mirrored sunglasses did it little service. "Just passing through."

"On a business trip?"

"You could say that."

Takato looked down at the counter. He absentmindedly started brushing bits of bread and flower off. "Yeah, must be nice to get to travel for work. I'm stuck here all day long. Not a whole lot changes, but it's comfortable and the pay is good. Of course it wasn't what I really want to do with my life. No way. I bet that when I start really doing what I want I'll be traveling all the time, don't you think? They say you just need to make the right connections first, but I just don't know anyone. Hey, you wouldn't happen to—"

She dropped a loaf of curry bread and a few doughnuts on the counter in front of him. "So go out and do it already. Don't bug me about it."

Takato's face fell. "Sorry." He looked over her purchase and rang it up. "That'll be eight-hundred fifty yen."

She slid the money to him. "Good things only happen when you work for them," she said. "I figured you'd know that by now, gogglehead."

Takato's eyes shot up. She had a little smirk on her face; it was so familiar, but he just couldn't place it before. "…Rika?"

"Took you long enough," she said, leaning back on her crutches a bit.

Takato jumped up again, knocking his seat over. "I can't believe it's you! What are you doing here?"

"Buying a snack. The bigger question is what are _you_ doing here?"

"Well, I'm…uh…working."

"At your parents' bakery? Don't tell me you still live with them."

"I've got my own place!" Takato replied loudly, feeling like his cheeks were on fire.

Rika only shook her head. "This will be even easier than I thought."

"Huh? What's that supposed to mean?"

"Takato, I'm going to do you a huge favor. Unless you want to work here for the rest of your life you'd better come with me."

"But there's no one else to run the—"

"Five minutes, gogglehead. I don't think you'll be getting a rush in that time anyway."

Takato looked around the empty store. "Deal." He started untying his apron when Rika cleared her throat. "What?"

"My change?" she asked.

"Oh! Yeah, sorry about that," Takato said nervously as he finished ringing her up.

Rika took her change and her bag and made her way back toward the door. Takato, meanwhile, dropped his apron and turned the sign on the front door around to say "Sorry, we're closed." Once they were both outside on the street, the sunshine almost staggering in the cloudless sky, Takato turned around to lock up. Before he had even put the keys back in his pocket a black town car pulled up in front of them. The driver, a man in a black suit, got out and opened the rear door facing them and took Rika's crutches from her as she stepped inside. Takato didn't follow right away; he stood back looking flabbergasted.

"Coming?" Rika asked impatiently.

"Uh…yeah," Takato said with a nervous smile. He glanced at the driver as he passed by him, but got no response. When he sat down inside the driver shut the door behind him and in a few more seconds they were off and driving.

The car was probably the most extravagant thing he'd ever ridden in: leather interior, lots of legroom, tinted windows, a partition between the front and back seats, and it even smelled nice. Of course Rika wasn't likely to give him the chance to enjoy it.

She began almost immediately and cut right to the heart of the matter. "I'm here to offer you a job, Takato."

"What sort of job?"

"Something right up your alley," she said with a smirk. "The pay is better than you're getting now, so if you've got any sense you'll accept it right here and now."

Takato took another look around the car's interior. "This seems a little fishy."

Rika turned to look at him, her eyes catching his. "I'm doing you a huge favor here, you know. You weren't my first choice."

"I still don't know what the job is!"

Rika lowered her sunglasses just a bit. "Taming."

"Taming? What you mean, like…" Takato paused when he realized her meaning then lowered his voice to almost a whisper. "Do you mean like taming digimon?"

"That's exactly what I mean," she said, looking forward again. "I remember you being only half-bad at it."

"But how is that possible?"

"Do you want the job or not?"

"I didn't even know that _was_ a job! Do you think I should put that on my résumé?"

"Cute."

"Don't we kind of need digimon to be Tamers?"

Rika sighed exhaustedly. "I should have known you'd make this more painful than it had to be. Fine, then. For the past eight months we've been seeing more and more digimon trying to bio-emerge into our world."

"But I thought they couldn't—"

"They can't," Rika went on. "Any that make it through either have to return immediately or they get themselves deleted. It sure hasn't stopped them from trying though. Those that know about this are afraid that sooner or later they'll figure a way to survive on our side, and then we'll have a real problem."

"Wow," said Takato. "Why haven't I heard about this?"

"Because I've been doing my job. Five months ago I became the new director of Hypnos, and in that time I've managed to keep things quiet. Of course if digimon like Vikaralamon start showing up on everybody's doorsteps my job will get a lot harder. That's why we're planning on doing something about this; that's where you come in."

"Well what do you expect me to do? Nicely ask them to go away? Put up a sign that says 'No solicitors or digimon?'"

"I expect you to shut up and listen," Rika said impatiently. "We're sending a team to the Digital World to figure out what's going on. I was supposed to be the one leading that team." She rapped her knuckles against her cast. "Since that's not going to happen now, we're asking you to substitute."

"So you want _me_ to lead the team?"

Rika suppressed a laugh. "No, no. You'll be more like…the equipment manager."

Takato thought about it for a second before realizing what she was getting at. "I'd be going to the DigiWorld so that I could carry things?"

"I assume you can still do that much," Rika said confidently. "You haven't been stuffing your face working at a bakery, have you?"

"I'm in great shape!"

"Good."

"Well alright then." Takato turned away to look out the window.

Rika glanced back at Takato, arching an eyebrow at him. "What?"

"Alright then," Takato repeated. "I'm in. When do we go?"

Rika smirked. "Two weeks."

"Two weeks?"

"We can't slow down just so you can catch up, gogglehead. We'll give you tonight to get your things in order; expect a car to pick you up tomorrow morning at six o'clock and pack light."

"I didn't think it would be so soon."

"Do you want to do this or not?"

Takato frowned. He was starting to remember some of Rika's less endearing qualities, and impatience made the top of the list. "It's not that I don't want to go. It's just…my last trip there didn't go so well."

"Get over yourself already," Rika said with a snort.

"It's not that easy!" Takato insisted.

"Oh yes it is," said Rika. "So you got a little lost. We told you it was a bad idea but that wasn't about to stop you back then. Don't tell me you've gotten skittish in the last fourteen years."

"I almost died, Rika."

"You were the one that wanted to go so bad. You don't have anyone to blame but yourself."

Takato leaned his head against the window, watching the street fly by. "I was just a kid though."

"So what?"

"So I didn't know what I was getting into!"

Rika shook her head. "Grow up and take a little responsibility for yourself, would you? You just said that you wanted to go there again. Now you're just trying to talk yourself out of it."

"Maybe I should be," Takato shot back. "I barely survived last time. This time I might not make it back at all."

"Last time you didn't even have a plan," said Rika. "This time you'll have a team, equipment, a way out and the whole of Hypnos watching your back."

Takato let out a long sigh. "I've got work though, and bills and stuff. What if I get a great job offer while I'm off visiting the DigiWorld? I've got a lot of reasons not to go."

"You work for your parents, you haven't tried for a better job in months, you live alone and judging from your credit cards, you haven't been on a date in more than a year."

He could feel his cheeks flush bright red. "Wha—how did…?"

"Background checks," Rika said with a nod. "Our researchers are very thorough."

"Great," Takato said as he sunk down into his seat.

"If what you need is a reason to go, though," Rika went on, "how about doing it to return a favor?"

"A favor?" Takato asked. "I don't think I owe you any favors."

"Not me," said Rika, as though that explained everything. Without going on, she pressed a button and the window to the front seat rolled down. "Change of plans," she called up to the driver. "Fujita Health University."

"We're going to a university?" Takato asked suspiciously as Rika rolled the window back up.

"Better relax. It's not a short drive."

Takato settled in, feeling a little dejected. He looked over at Rika again; she was as calm as ever, perfectly in control. She never really showed it, but there was always an air of confidence around her when she was in her element. Even after years without seeing her, he could still sense it. That was another one of her less than endearing qualities.

Sure, it had been a long time since his last visit to the Digital World, but Takato knew he was right to be nervous. He'd found the gate right where it had been before, at the end of Guilmon's tunnel. He thought it was a dream come true, but no one else seemed to agree. He was so sure they'd all want to go, and they did, but they also had Henry's cool head there to warn them against making the trip again. They all had their own reasons to be sure, but things turned against the plan when Henry—who missed his partner more than anyone else—said that it would be too dangerous. Even Kazu of all people eventually agreed it was a bad idea.

What would be the point of the gate if not to use it? Even if it meant going alone, Takato would keep his promise to Guilmon. No matter what happened at least he would do that much. That's what he thought back then, at least. Weeks later, crouched in a dark cave, almost frozen and all alone, Takato began to wonder why he had ever made the journey.

**May 17, 2003**

The short life of Takato Matsuki had reached its end. For the last three days the wind had done nothing but howl and snap at anything it could reach. Sand, more than he'd ever imagined possible, rushed past his tiny window on the world every second. He brought his legs in tighter and rested his goggled eyes on his forearms, which were perched on his knees. There was no mistaking the quivering of his chin, the stifling of his breath; he held himself even tighter.

Calling his hiding spot a cave would be stretching the definition; it was more like a depression in the rock, deep enough to take cover from the storm and sheltered enough to be dark inside, but beyond that there was barely enough room for Takato to squeeze his body into. As little as it was, he had been lucky to even find it. After hours searching through the blinding storm, skin ravaged and raw, that tiny mound of red rocky earth looked like an oasis when compared to the flat, cracked landscape that he'd spent most of his time wandering through. While it was shelter though, it lacked the one critical ingredient of a true oasis: water.

His canteen, bone dry since the day before, sat next to him with sand starting to build up against it. His backpack was now being used as a thin cushion between him and the unforgiving ground, its stores of food having been exhausted. Of course even if he did have food to carry, Takato wasn't even sure he could use his backpack anymore; it was tattered after such rough wear. It was barely holding together. The same was true of his clothes; both knees of his pants were completely worn away, as were the elbows on his jacket and even his shirt. What wasn't worn out was ripped or so dirty that it was hard to believe it had ever been any color but brown. It wouldn't have been so bad if it weren't for the fact that the wind was blisteringly cold. Probably the only things still serviceable were his goggles, which he'd donned as soon as the storm began and hadn't removed for three days. He could only guess at how different the skin around his eyes would look from the rest of his face when it was over with.

Never in his life had he wanted a bath more. To be warm, clean and surrounded by water, the only sound being the dripping of a leaky faucet: it was the very image of paradise. Every day that passed in the Digital World he came to appreciate the simple things more and more. A bath, a fresh change of clothes, clean water, warm food, a bed, even a friendly face, all of them seemed to exist only in his memories. How long had it even been? He couldn't remember. The days and weeks had all begun to blend together in his mind.

Takato sniffled. He lifted his goggles up onto his forehead to wipe his eyes, not that it did much good. He buried his face in his arms again. Not even the tears that dripped onto his lips were a relief; they were salty and bitter, and the trails they left on his cheeks made his face shudder in the cold. A whimper escaped the back of his throat as his teeth began to chatter.

Stupid Guilmon. Where could he be? It seemed like Takato was always chasing after him for some reason. It was just a lot harder now without a digivice to track him. Didn't that numbskull even know Takato was looking for him? Didn't he even care there were promises to be kept?

Takato shook his head; of course Guilmon cared, but there was no way he could know Takato was looking for him. It all seemed like such a simple plan. Who knew it would turn out to be so complicated? He could be anywhere in the DigiWorld. Takato had never realized just how big the place was; in the end it made sense that it would be huge because it was, after all, a whole world, but somehow he hadn't expected that. Henry probably would have seen it coming.

Takato's face burned with anger. Who did Henry think he was? He should have come too. He should have been there to help, they all should have been. Henry, Rika, Kenta and Kazu, Jeri, Ryo, every last one of them. If they were around things would probably be a lot better. They would have found Guilmon and the other digimon. Takato could have been happy instead of stuck hiding beneath a rock. So what if things had turned out the same way? They'd still be caught in the storm, but at least they'd be together. At least someone might think of a way out. At least he wouldn't be all on his own.

"Cowards," he mumbled.

How could they just abandon him like that? How could they just give up on their digimon? Was he the only one that still even cared? In the few short months since the D-Reaper was beaten things had gone back to normal so fast. When they did though, the Tamers started seeing less and less of one another. Ryo and Rika were off in different schools, so it wasn't long before Takato only saw them on weekends when they weren't busy. Since Henry was in a different class he and Takato didn't see much of one another during the day, and of course Takato only saw Suzie when he was over at Henry's house. Those visits grew less frequent when there wasn't some pressing emergency to talk about. Jeri started to become distant after everything that happened, and though Takato still got to hang out with Kenta and Kazu all the time, none of them much felt like playing cards after having gone through the real thing. Sure, they still did what they could to all get together, but there was something missing from their lives. Takato never realized how bad it had gotten until he found himself the only one willing to go back to the DigiWorld.

Did the others not even want to stay friends anymore? The only way to make things right again was to work together to find their partners. It was the digimon that were missing from their lives; it was the digimon that had brought them together in the beginning, and it would be the digimon that could bring them together again. So why was Takato the only one out there? If nobody else cared enough to try and fix things, why should he do any different? If he couldn't fix things with them, at least he could keep his promise to Guilmon. Guilmon was a true friend, the kind of friend that would never, ever give up on him. Where could he be?

Friendship, the kind Takato had found among the Tamers and digimon, meant everything. Friends were the people he would risk his life for any day. He'd risked his life for Guilmon just by returning to the DigiWorld. The risk just hadn't paid off yet. At the rate things were going it might never pay off. If the storm didn't stop and Takato didn't find a friendly village soon his gamble would catch up with him.

That was it. He had risked everything, and he had done so by himself. He couldn't blame Guilmon or Henry, or anyone else for this. Not even the storm could shoulder any of the responsibility for this predicament. Takato Matsuki had been the architect of his own undoing. If anything the others had tried to help him by not going; they knew the dangers and tried to tell him, but his loneliness made him stubborn. That's what Guilmon was: a cure to his loneliness. The pangs of losing the digimon were only made worse by the group's slow dissolution.

Takato groaned. "I'm so stupid."

This is what it had come to. The pain of feeling alone drove him to desperate measures, to forsake what true friends he had left and search for a dream. That pursuit finally left him stranded in the desert, the light slowly fading from his eyes. There he was truly alone, and there he finally came face-to-face with the fear that had pushed him forward since the day that Guilmon left his side.

So Takato cried. The dull ache in his stomach nagged at him, but he could do nothing to quiet it. The wind cut him to the bone, but he could not keep it out. Exhausted and starving, he did the only thing he could still do: he slept.

It was impossible to know how long he was asleep for, but when he finally stirred it was dark out. A weary glance skyward showed him the dancing lights of stars and the aura around the distant Earth.

Takato's eyes shot wide open. "Stars!" He jumped to his feet, knocking his head on the rock just above him, and though it hurt he still scrambled back up again. The sky was clear, the storm had finally relented. His legs hurt and he stumbled when he tried to walk, but he pressed on. There was no telling how long he might have to get someplace safe, so he intended to make the best of it. He let his backpack and canteen stay where they had fallen and just ran. When he fell he spit the dirt from his mouth and crawled onward. Direction didn't matter now; all that he cared about was that he was going, moving, determined to survive. All thoughts of friendship and promises were abandoned for once, and only the drive to live spurred Takato forward.

The night's perfect stillness and silence was only broken by his almost panicked gasps for air. Though he kicked up a lot of dirt and dust, and though he tried to move forward with everything he had, his weakness was already catching up with him. His hunger twisted his stomach into a knot while the mere thought of water was enough to bring a tear to his eyes. Even for crawling on his hands and knees his pace was a slow one and it was getting slower. Before long he couldn't lift his arms to go on and he fell forward right there with his face pressed to the dry earth. His breaths swirled the dust by his mouth but that was the extent of his movements.

When he heard a sound, faint and distant, he thought he was imagining it. For three days the only sounds came from the wind and from himself so it seemed almost impossible. He gave it no mind and continued his shallow breathing unabated.

"Takato!"

This time his eyes opened, though only half-way. Had he really just heard his name? No, it couldn't be.

"Takato!"

What could it mean? Was he dreaming? Was he hallucinating? Was he dying? None of those appealed to him, least of all the last one. Still, he couldn't deny the possibility.

"Where are you?"

It seemed so far away, and the way it echoed across the endless wasteland made him wonder just how long it had been carried. Maybe it was the echo of a sound that had been going on forever. He smiled at that thought, though he didn't know why.

"Takato!"

That one sounded different to his ears, somehow closer, more delicate. Could it be a second voice? Were they voices at all? It didn't make any sense. Should he answer? Would it even matter if he did?

"Takato, can you hear me?" the first voice called out again.

Yes, that's right. It was a voice, a real, human voice. It had to be. He closed his eyes again, blinking a few teardrops onto the dry, red ground. With intense effort he managed to roll over onto his back. The whole universe hung in front of his eyes, empty and yet startlingly bright. "I'm here!" he tried to call out. He was shocked at the hoarseness of his own voice. He tried to clear his throat, but it did no good. "I'm here!" he called again. His voice sounded weak and small, even to him. He could only hope the wind would carry it.

"This way, quickly!" the second voice rang out.

"Takato! Is that you? Where are you?" the first voice shouted.

They were getting clearer now, closer. He didn't know if he could draw another breath deep enough, but he tried. He breathed in, but only had a coughing fit from it. Maybe that would be enough, or maybe not. He tried again, slower. When his lungs held as much as they could his grainy voice once again split the night's cold serenity. "Here!"

His eyes closed and the stars disappeared. He felt so tired, so very tired. Maybe if he could dream he could have the bath he wanted, the warmth of the water, the tranquility, the simple pleasure of being clean and safe. It had been so long.

It was not to be. A commotion came toward him, a scampering of bare feet on crumbling earth. Then he felt someone drop to his knees at his side. They both coughed from the dust that was kicked up. Someone shook his shoulders, shook them hard. He would not have his peaceful dream.

"Takato, wake up!"

It was the first voice, and now that it was right there in front of him it was so familiar. Takato opened his weary eyes once more and looked up at his friend's panicked eyes. "Hi," was all he managed to get out as he smiled up at Ryo.

Ryo turned his head away. "He's here!" Ryo shrieked. "Hurry!"

A woman dressed in a beige hooded robe with red fringe quickly followed Ryo's voice and joined him at Takato's side. "He's very weak," she said after only a glance at the boy. She immediately reached her arms beneath Takato and picked him up.

Ryo stood back to watch what she did. The cold of the night made him shiver, especially with how he was dressed: in a dirty red sweater and pajama bottoms. He wasn't even wearing any shoes or socks, and he had a serious case of bed head. "Is he going to be okay?"

"I'm not sure," the woman said as she looked closely at Takato. "Ryo, you've got to get him to a hospital in your world right away."

"Me? But—I don't—how…?"

"Don't argue, there's no time," she scolded him even as she dumped Takato onto Ryo's back. "You know I can't travel to your world now."

"I don't know how though…" Ryo said quietly as he supported Takato's legs with his hands.

"Yes you do," she told him. "You have to believe in yourself, Ryo. Do this for your friend, I know you can."

"But…when will I see you again?"

She smiled at him, then leaned down and kissed him on the forehead. "Soon. I promise."

Ryo smiled up at her, but it was not a happy smile. "I missed you, mom."

"I've missed you too," she whispered back. "Now go!"

**September 22, 2017**

Takato was not a fan of hospitals, so when he realized their destination was actually the Fujita Health University Hospital he was a tad reluctant to go any farther. Rika listened to his concerns and decided he'd be fine; Takato, of course, was in no position to disagree.

It wasn't that he was afraid of hospitals or doctors or needles, really. Granted he didn't like them, but those weren't at issue. No, he just didn't like hospitals ever since he spent a week at one following his disastrous visit to the DigiWorld. In those seven days he got to learn a few things about hospitals. The first was that they only seemed to have two kinds of flooring: either ugly linoleum or even uglier carpet. It was the kind of carpet that had bizarre patterns and featured colors as diverse as hairball grey, black eye purple, and bloody vomit red, usually all mixed together to disguise the inevitable stains of indeterminate origin. If you weren't feeling sick when you went to the hospital, the floors seemed designed to make sure you were by the time you left.

Of course there was one thing even worse than the floors; at least he didn't always have to look down. It was the smell that was the worst. There was no getting away from it, even when he slept. At first he thought it was just the smell of strong antiseptic, sprayed on every floor, every wall, throughout every room. It was powerful but he didn't let it get to him until about three days in when he started to realize more and more that the antiseptic smell was there to cover up many more far worse odors. By the time he went home even the smell of a hospital was enough to give him the dry heaves.

This one was no different. What were they even doing there? Rika was more tight-lipped than usual and it was already getting old again. Apparently they were expected though; after signing in at the front desk a nurse directed them to go down the hall to the elevator, upstairs, down a few more halls to some wing or other. When they finally did get where they were going they had to show their visitor's passes before the orderly there would even let them in the door. Yes, Takato could think of plenty of reasons to dislike hospitals.

They seemed to be headed into some sort of a lounge. The wall to the right was covered with windows, so it was actually very bright inside and the view was admittedly a pretty good one. There were a few potted plants scattered around in corners and against walls, and though the walls were painted a dull white they were livened up with a few vibrant paintings. The floor of this rectangular room was filled with round white tables, each with three or four matching chairs around them. Most of these tables were occupied. Even though attempts were made to make the room look nice it still had that hideous carpet and it still carried the same nauseating smell. Rika sat down at one of the empty tables and glared at Takato until he did the same.

"So are you finally going to tell me why we're here?" he asked.

"I told you, you've got a favor to return," Rika said crossly.

That was when Takato noticed that Rika seemed even tenser than before. The way she sat, the tightness in her voice, the way she scanned the room with her eyes, it seemed she wanted to be here even less than he did.

He didn't have long to think about it though. He followed her eyes to the door opening on the far side of the room. An orderly in tan scrubs came out, pushing along a wheelchair in which sat a young man with messy brown hair dressed in a hospital gown and matching robe. The orderly wheeled him over to the table where Takato and Rika sat and then walked off.

Takato couldn't believe what he was seeing. Though it had been some years, the man sitting next to him, eyes hardly focusing and head lolling off to the side, was Ryo Akiyama.

"Ryo?" he asked. "Is that really you?"

"He doesn't talk much," Rika explained.

Indeed, Ryo didn't even seem to notice Takato was there, or anyone else for that matter.

"What happened to him?"

"That's a very good question," said Rika. "Four years ago he went to the DigiWorld. The next time anyone saw him he was in a coma, and he stayed that way for over three years. Twelve months ago he woke up, but he hasn't been well."

Takato looked closer at Ryo's face. "So he's just been like this for all that time?"

"On his better days," Rika said through gritted teeth.

"Well haven't you tried asking him about what happened?"

"There's only one way to get him talking," said Rika, "but even then he doesn't have anything useful to share."

"Well it feels kind of weird talking about him like this," Takato whispered to her. "Can't we…you know…get him in on the conversation or something?"

Rika sighed. "Fine, but don't say I didn't warn you." She turned to Ryo and looked him in the eyes. "Good day, Digimon King." He voiced was laced with sarcasm.

Ryo instantly snapped to attention, a broad smile spreading over his face. "It _is_ a good day, isn't it?"

"Yeah," said Takato. "Beautiful."

"How's physical therapy going?" asked Rika.

"Oh not very well at all." Ryo shook his head. "They won't give me back my tail."

Rika rolled her eyes. "Here we go."

"Your tail?" asked Takato.

"That's right, my tail. How am I supposed to balance without it?"

"I…um…" Takato tried to think of an answer, but Ryo's attention shifted so quickly down to his hands that it didn't matter.

"My fingers," Ryo said, sounding perplexed.

"What about them?" asked Takato.

"I don't have enough of them. Where'd they all go? How am I supposed to count like this?"

"Your fingers are right there," said Takato.

"No, this isn't right." Ryo's confusion quickly turned to frustration. "I've got too few. Or too many. No, this isn't right at all."

Rika cut in and quickly distracted him. "How's the food?"

The smile returned to Ryo's face. "Oh it's very good food. You should try it before you die. They told me I was going to die, you know, but I didn't."

"What happened in the DigiWorld?" asked Takato.

"Oh lots of things happen. So many things, it's such a busy place. Have you ever been there? It gets so busy that sometimes I just want to make it all stop, don't you? Yes, of course you do. It's too loud, so I had to kill everyone. But then I stopped myself, because killing is not very nice, is it? No, it's not, but I kept on trying. Oh yes I did. I even tried to kill myself, but I didn't. Do you know why?"

"Why?"

Ryo leaned in close to Takato and whispered, "Love." Then he winked and leaned back in his chair.

"This is pointless," Rika grumbled.

"You love me," Ryo said to her. "But you hate me too. I don't blame you though; I'm easy to love and hate. I do it to myself all the time!"

Takato decided to try a different approach. "Ryo, what happened four years ago?"

"They told me I was going to die, but I showed them. Ken was there, he can tell you. No, I didn't die. I wonder why. Do you know? I've almost died a lot, but never did. I tried to kill myself, so myself tried to kill me back, but it didn't work out because I loved myself too, though that was a long time ago. Now I love myself, but just don't tell me about it. Okay?"

"Okay," Takato nodded.

Rika turned to Takato. "Like I said, it's gibberish. He's not even living on this planet anymore."

"Have you seen my father?" Ryo asked suddenly. "He's been so tired lately, always sleeping."

"Afraid not," said Rika.

"He should be waking up soon," Ryo went on, talking more to himself than anybody else. "He'll be cranky when he wakes up, I think. Very cranky. He'll probably kill you."

"What are you talking about?" asked Takato.

"According to the staff your father was just here just last week," Rika reminded him.

"Was he?" asked Ryo. "How strange. That's not like him, or maybe it is. If he was here, then shouldn't we be dead? I've got you there. Either we're dead or he wasn't here. So which is it? Are we already dead? Maybe they were right after all. I suppose I owe them an apology."

"Who are they?" asked Takato.

"Don't you know? I'm surprised. My mother and her friends are always busy. Busy, busy, busy, busy, _busy_! I don't think they ever even sleep. Can you imagine that? Not sleeping? My roommate never sleeps, but he's crazy. Personally I love to sleep. Do you love sleep, Takatomon?"

"Takatomon?" the two former Tamers asked at once.

"Yes, that's what he called you, didn't he? Yes, I think so. Guilmon. That's a wonderful name, don't you think? Of course you do, Takatomon. You're the one who named him, after all. Or did he name you? Maybe he's the one that created you in the first place. No, of course not. That would be silly." Ryo seemed to grin at this last remark.

"Satisfied yet, gogglehead?" asked Rika.

Takato still had plenty of questions left to ask though. "Ryo, what are they busy doing?"

"Guilmon is very nice. I think he misses you. I think it's sad what will happen when my father wakes up."

"What will happen?" Takato prodded.

"Don't be sad, Takatomon," said Ryo. "Guilmon was happy when I saw him. I don't think he'll mind dying."

"What?"

"Don't let it get to you," Rika warned him. "It's all nonsense anyway."

"Don't listen to her, Takatomon," Ryo whispered conspiratorially. "She's just mad because her father will never wake up again."

Takato had never seen anyone's mood shift so suddenly. Rika was out of her chair in an instant, her jaw clenched and eyes flashing rage. If Takato hadn't intervened, not even his status as a demented invalid would have kept Ryo from a beating. "We're done here," was all she said after a second.

Takato followed Rika as she stormed out and down the hall again. Even though she was on crutches she was still in so much of a hurry that Takato practically had to run to keep up. She couldn't be bothered to wait for the elevator and took the stairs instead. Not a word passed through her lips all the way out of the hospital and back down to the car. She hardly said a single word the whole drive back to the Matsuki bakery, and in that respect things weren't so different from the first ride. The mood was certainly more hostile though.

They finally did make it back and the car stopped in front of the store. Takato was just reaching for the car door when Rika turned to him and started talking. "You owe him," she said. "I don't care whether you want to return the favor or not, but if you do then this is your chance. The only shot he's got left is to find out what happened to him."

"I'm still not sure what I want to do."

"Well decide fast. The car will be here tomorrow morning at six o'clock."

"I should be ready by then."

"I hope so, gogglehead."

"I'll see you, Rika."

"Whatever."


	3. Hypnosis

**April 8, 2017**

Rika hated interruptions when she was working, especially interruptions from strangers. She gave the man standing at the far end of the library table a cold glare. "What?" she asked, never having been big on the whole idea of tact.

"Don't worry, I won't take up much of your time, Ms. Nonaka," he said with a disarming smile. He was a short man with dark hair and a matching suit; non-threatening, but that only made Rika more suspicious. He looked familiar, but couldn't place the face. "May I have a seat?"

She put the law book down, marked the page and closed it. Men in suits rarely took up only a little time. "Sit wherever you like."

"Thank you," he said, taking the chair at the opposite end of the table from her. He seemed to blend into the dark wood and poorly-lit background of the room; Rika hadn't even noticed until she glanced at the window how dark it had gotten outside. "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Hideo Orimoto."

Rika smirked, crossing her arms and leaning back slightly. So that was where she knew him from. "The Chief Cabinet Secretary. Don't tell me they've got someone like you scouring the legal archives now."

He chuckled to himself. "Hardly. No, I'm here because this is where your office said I could find you."

Rika frowned. "I don't like being followed around by strange men," she hissed.

"I assure you there's nothing sinister going on here."

"So then what have I done to earn the Chief Cabinet Secretary's attention?" she asked, narrowing her eyes at him.

"It has more to do with what you know than what you've done," Orimoto began. "But please, let me ask you a question for a change. Do you enjoy your work in the District Attorney's Office?"

"It pays the bills."

"I take it, then, that you don't find research to be the best use of your talents."

"I wouldn't say no if they wanted to promote me to D.A. if that's what you're asking."

Orimoto chuckled again. "I'm afraid your boss is happy where he is. The funny thing about working in a government office is that there are plenty of other avenues to pursue. Your job and mine aren't so different, you know; we are both civil servants after all."

"Compare our paychecks and try telling me that."

"You'll make a fine attorney one day, Ms. Nonaka. There can be no doubting that. You do have other skills, however, and using them might be beneficial to both your country and yourself."

"That has got to be the worst pickup line I've ever heard."

Orimoto reached into his briefcase, removed a manila envelope and slid it across the table. He began talking before she had even opened it. "In 2003 the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building and the surrounding area of Shinjuku was compromised by a force identified only as the D-Reaper."

Rika stiffened, then leaned forward and looked inside the envelope. "Go on," she said without looking up at him.

"Putting aside the matter of who was responsible and the inevitable fallout of the incident, it was a disaster unprecedented in our nation's history. Though the names of those involved in the incident have been removed from all official records, there are those who are still aware of the role played by you and your associates. There are those who wish to make sure what you know about Hypnos remains hidden."

Rika peered over a collection of photographs that she never knew existed. The D-Reaper, digimon, themselves, all of it was caught on film and attached to detailed documentation.

"Hypnos existed for a simple reason," Orimoto went on. "Because of our nation's inability to raise an effective military and because of our limited natural resources, we have been relegated to the backstage of global affairs. The information age allows us a rare opportunity, Ms. Nonaka. Hypnos was created with the singular purpose of monitoring global communications; the project would allow Japan to become a great nation once again."

"It was a bad idea," Rika said as she continued to flip through one page after the next. There were detailed schematics of the digivices, programs used by Hypnos, even some of the work done by Shibumi.

"On that we will have to disagree," said Orimoto. "We do have a problem that we can both agree must be dealt with, though."

"And that is?"

"The very same problem that derailed Hypnos last time, as I'm sure you recall. The digital life-forms that infest the net are the gremlins in an otherwise smooth machine, and for the last three months they have been persistent in their attempts to return to our world."

"I really don't see what this has to do with me."

"It has a great deal to do with you. Several years ago we reestablished the Hypnos project and its new director has been more than capable; certainly more reliable than I am led to believe his predecessor was. Unfortunately he lacks the imagination needed to deal with these digimon. We've decided to replace him with someone more experienced in such matters, someone who has shown a good track record of dealing with these creatures."

"Someone who's already on your payroll, if I'm not mistaken."

"You are shrewd, Ms. Nonaka. I don't deny that your name did jump up on the list because of your career, but look at it this way: by helping us deal with the problem you will be doing yourself an even greater service."

"And if I say no?"

"We have extended you a great deal of courtesy for your silence regarding Hypnos up until now, Ms. Nonaka. Is it so much to hope that you would be willing to repay that courtesy in kind?"

"That depends on what I'd have to do to repay it."

"It's really very simple. You do whatever you need to in order to clear up this mess and make sure we don't get any more D, E, F, or G-Reapers. You get our full backing and complete control over the Hypnos facility. You pick your own staff and can bring in as many government scientists and private contractors as you like."

"Seems a little bit too generous if you ask me," said Rika. "What's the catch?"

"The catch, Ms. Nonaka, is that you keep this quiet. As long as you do that, you can operate at your own discretion, free from prosecution for your part in anything that might be construed as illicit. Meanwhile, those of us who want to keep this project moving forward keep our hands clean. There was a time when you were the best at this kind of thing. What we need right now is the best."

"I'll need some time to decide."

"Of course you will," said Orimoto, the smile returning to his face. "When you get bored of spending your nights doing research for your boss, feel free to call my office. They will patch you right through to me." He stood up, bowed politely, and turned to go.

**September 23, 2017**

In the end, the choice was an obvious one for Rika. Running an outfit like Hypnos, tracking every attempt made by a digimon to bio-emerge, it just felt right. It was just the details that got in her way when it came to enjoying the job: first it was the Chief Cabinet Secretary always poking his head in and looking over her shoulder, and second it was the broken leg that would keep her from joining the long-awaited expedition as she had planned.

If they could afford a delay she would have gladly made it happen, but that was not the case. One of the biggest pains was that it had happened while she was training for the mission; evidently, the obstacle course was not supposed to be run in the rain. Even worse, her injury meant that everyone else was being extra-cautious lately. She knew that they couldn't afford to lose anyone else on the team to an injury, but they seemed to be using it as an excuse to slack off on their training.

The intercom on her desk crackled to life. "Ma'am, he's arrived," the voice on the other end announced.

Rika pressed the button to talk. "I'm on my way."

Takato followed his black-suited escort into the entryway of a very plain, unassuming building, miles from anything of interest and easily missed among the more pleasing sights of downtown Tokyo. It was every bit a government building, designed specifically to blend in. If this was Hypnos now, it was a big step back in terms of location, even though it did blend in much better. They walked past the receptionist and the front desk, through a set of metal detectors (and even though neither of them passed inspection they were simply waved through) and stopped in front of the elevators. Takato was unsure of what to do, but he said nothing and simply adjusted the weight of his duffel bag on his shoulder.

The elevator closest to them made a tone and the doors slid open. Rika was standing there with a typically bored expression. "About time you got here," was all she said.

"Nice to see you too."

"Well come on already," she said impatiently. "We've got work to do."

Takato hurried into the elevator, the doors shutting behind him. "So this is the new Hypnos, huh?" he asked. "What's the matter, budget cuts?" He snickered.

"Don't blame me, I just work here," said Rika. She didn't say anything at first, but her gaze drifted slowly up to the top of his head. "What do you think you're wearing?"

He grinned. "You like 'em?" he asked as he adjusted his old goggles. "I just figured it's been a long time and Guilmon might not recognize me, but I bet he'd remember these."

Rika only shook her head. "Whatever. Let's just get to work, okay?"

"Sure thing. What's first?"

"First you meet your team."

"Great!"

The elevator came to a stop. There was another tone and the doors slid open again, revealing the heart of the Hypnos operation. It was a room just like the one back in the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, darkened except for the flashing consoles around the outer wall, the center taken up by the scanning equipment and technicians hard at work, though apparently not hard enough. "What do I pay you people for?" Rika barked, immediately inspiring a flourish of activity.

"Very ladylike," a sarcastic voice said from off to the side.

Takato and Rika turned at once. There was no mistaking it; aside from a few years of aging, Henry's face was the same as it always was. He was leaning against one of the wall consoles wearing charcoal slacks and a dress shirt, white with blue vertical stripes; his sleeves were rolled up and the first few buttons were open to reveal an undershirt and the sweaty evidence of his hard work. "Glad you finally made it, Takato," he said with a smile.

"Henry…" Takato could hardly believe it. It had been years since they'd seen each other, but for a moment it was as if only seconds had passed; the thought made him smile. "Good to see you too."

"Catch up over tea and crumpets," Rika scoffed. "I don't intend to spend all day leading you around the place like this is a field trip or something."

"Well you didn't tell me Henry was here too," Takato pointed out.

Henry shook his head. "That's just like her. I bet she didn't tell you I was the one that recommended you in the first place either."

"Must've slipped my mind," said Rika. "Let's not spend all day on this. I just brought him here to meet the rest of the team."

Henry nodded. "Well there's me, of course, and then there's—"

"Wait, you mean I'll actually be going to the Digital World with you?" asked Takato.

"That's the plan," said Henry. "Well, me and our other member."

"So it's just three of us?" Takato asked with a hint of concern.

"For now," said Henry. "Don't ask me why though. That's Rika's department."

"Trust me, it's the right call for this kind of work," said Rika.

"Ah, here she is now." Henry nodded at someone behind the other two.

Takato turned to look at the third member of his new team. She was a bit on the short side and looked a little younger than anyone else there, but her face had a lot of personality. Her reddish-brown hair was braided behind her head and she was wearing a denim jacket that was too small for her, a black tank-top, dark brown pants and boots. She smiled his way when she saw him turn to look. "Long time, no see," was all she said.

Takato blushed. Even though she seemed to know him, he couldn't place from where. "Um, yeah. Hi!" He reached out to shake her hand, which just got a giggle out of her.

"I told you he wouldn't recognize me, Henry," she said, looking past Takato.

"Yeah, yeah. You win; I'll pay you later," Henry said in a defeated tone. "Takato, I'm sure you remember my sister."

Takato was stunned. "Suzie?"

"Took you long enough," she said with another smile.

"Well it's just that you look so different," said Takato, still a little flustered. "I mean you grew up a lot. Were you even in high school the last time I saw you?"

"Something like that," said Suzie. "Don't feel bad though. You look pretty different yourself."

"Wonderful," Rika cut in. "We've all met now, so let's move on."

"Don't be such a stick in the mud, Rika," Henry pleaded. "How about this: you go back to doing whatever it is that you do around here and we'll finish showing Takato around, huh?"

Rika snorted. "Whatever. Just make sure he's on the firing range right after lunch." With hardly a nod she was off again.

"Did she say firing range?" Takato asked as soon as Rika was out of earshot.

"Yeah, she thinks everyone on the team needs to be armed in case we have to defend ourselves," Henry said apprehensively. "She wants you to learn to use a firearm."

"Well no way am I going to do that," said Takato. "It's not even legal for civilians to carry those things."

"Technically we're not civilians anymore," said Henry, "though I completely agree with you. The whole thing is stupid."

"You're lucky she didn't kick you off the team when you told her to shove the gun rule," Suzie said with a snicker.

"Yeah, well, she knows she needs me out there," said Henry. "Of course since I'm the team leader now, I get to drop the rule altogether. Don't worry Takato, you won't even know where the firing range is if I have anything to say about it."

"I appreciate it," Takato said with a smile.

Suzie rolled her eyes. "Great. So I'll be the only one packing heat on this whole trip."

"You know I don't like the idea of you using those things," Henry said sternly.

"Would you relax?" she asked. "I'm telling you, it's a lot safer knowing how they work than not knowing."

"I'm not having this argument again."

"Are too!"

"Guys, guys, please!" Takato insisted. "Can we just drop it already?"

"Fine by me," Suzie shrugged.

"Takato's right," Henry nodded. "Besides, I've got something way cooler to show you."

"What's that?" asked Takato.

Henry grinned. "Our new digivices."

One short elevator ride and a walk down a winding corridor later found the three of them in a much smaller room with no windows. Judging from all the equipment it was some kind of electronics lab. Henry marched straight over to a cabinet against the far wall, unlocked one of the drawers and pulled it open.

"Behold my pride and joy," said Henry, standing back and waving his arm toward the open drawer.

Peering inside, Takato saw three digivices, as different from one another as they were from the old D-Arcs. At first he wasn't even sure what to make of them. "Henry, you designed these?"

"Every one of them," Henry said with a little pride in his voice.

"Pretty easy for a guy that's been building computers since before he could walk," Suzie said with a little snicker.

"Practically," Henry shot back.

Takato picked up one of the digivices and examined it closely. It was shaped like a flattened chicken egg, the pointed end resting at the heel of his palm. The casing was mostly a blue plastic with an indented grip for his fingers and thumb on opposing sides, a thin slot along the top, and in the middle of the front there was a small, oval display, darkened, and surrounded by a metal ring that had three points coming off of it: one pointing down, and the others pointing toward the upper left and upper right. The dark blue plastic casing was divided into three sections by narrow breaks following the lines of the three points orbiting the central display screen.

"That one is Rika's favorite," said Henry. "She wanted me to design it first, which is why it's called the Hypnos Special 01."

"Well that's a mouthful," said Takato.

"Tell me about it," said Henry. "Everyone who worked on it has been calling it the Egg though. It's the design specialized for combat."

"Wait, specialized?" asked Takato.

"That's right," said Henry. "Each of these digivices does something different. See, all digivices come with three general functions: combat, linking, and scanning. If you make a digivice good at one thing then the other areas suffer. When I got here they were trying to design one digivice that could do everything just fine, but when Rika told me to take over in here it just seemed to me that if we were going to go with three team members then three digivices, one for each area of specialization, would probably be the best way to go."

"Makes sense," Takato had to admit. "You said this was the one made for combat?"

"Yeah, which is why it's the one that most resembles the old D-Arcs," Henry went on. "Those were made for combat too. Look here, you see this slot on top?"

Takato nodded. "Yeah."

"That's for slashing cards, just like on the D-Arc. This center display will give you power readings on your digimon, and I've done what I can to build in all the same battle functionality as a D-Arc. It can even manifest blue cards."

"So who does this belong to?"

"Oh that's the really neat part," said Henry. "It works for whoever's holding it at the time and whoever their partner digimon might be. The program is completely adaptive to almost any situation."

Suzie sighed. "You just love giving this speech, don't you Henry?"

"Maybe a little," he admitted. "Anyway, check out that one right there."

Takato put down the Egg and picked up the digivice Henry pointed to. He could hold this one in the palm of his hand much like the last, put it was configured somewhat differently. It was divided into three parts. The section resting against his fingers was the longer of the two bottom parts by more than an inch; the plastic fit comfortably against the curve of his fingers, thin in profile and rounded along the outside, and it was on this piece that Henry had placed the display, another dark screen with a thin metal border, but this one came to a point near the bottom and expanded upward into a triangle that followed the curve of the device. The other lower section was resting against the base of Takato's thumb. It was formed from a dark green plastic much like the longer piece next to it, and aside from the broad ridges along it surface for a better grip, this piece was rather plain, curving more steeply than its neighbor to make up for its shorter length but similar width. The top section of this digivice was molded from white plastic. It continued the curve from the left piece to the right, giving the top portion of the device a nicely rounded appearance. When viewed from the front this section resembled half of a yin-yang sign, the broad rounded end being on the left and the point curving to the right. What struck Takato about this piece of the device was the row of all kinds of ports all along the top ridge from infra-red to USB, cable, Ethernet, several kinds of card slots and a few others he didn't even recognize, each with a built-in cable where necessary and a tiny flap to cover them when not in use. He could guess how this one was specialized, but he let Henry continue his speech anyway.

"This is the linking digivice, the Hypnos Special 02. It's got a transmitter so powerful it can even let you talk between worlds no matter what kind of interference you run into. Not only can it connect to almost any hardware you're likely to find, but it's also designed to link all three of these digivices together and to share data between humans and digimon more efficiently than any other digivice could. Oh, and I even included this thing called a helix ring that was in Shibumi's notes; it's supposed to be able to link two digimon together. Give me enough time and I'll even make this thing able to open digital gates on the go."

Suzie shook her head. "You forgot one part."

"I did?"

"You didn't tell him what you've been calling it."

"I was getting to that, Suzie," said Henry. "Anyway, we've been calling this one the Beak."

"Why the Beak?" asked Takato.

"Well just look at it from the side," Henry instructed.

"Oh yeah," Takato said after a second. "It does kind of look like a bird's beak."

"Are we almost done with the song and dance yet?" asked Suzie.

"If you're bored I'm sure you've got work to do," Henry said dryly.

"That's supposed to make me less bored?"

"So what about this last one?" Takato asked as he picked up the third digivice. It was very different from the others in that it didn't seem designed to be held in the hand. It was a circular disk, about the same thickness as the others, but it had a black, nylon strap coming out of opposing sides that were connected at a smaller device, also round and with some kind of spherical lens in the center. If he had to guess, he thought this digivice was designed to be worn around the hand with the larger disk on the back and the smaller lens in the palm. He tried it on and it fit like a glove.

Taking note of the details now, he noted the white plastic casing that surrounded the lens and the sections where the strap attached to the disk. The rest of the outer edge of the disk was covered by four red plastic sections, each shaped like half of a yin-yang symbol, two on each side of the white sections. One panel was set against the next so that they circled the device counterclockwise. The display on this digivice was right in the center of the disk, a circle that went right up to the edge of the red panels, once again with a black metal border.

"This is definitely my favorite one," Henry said with a little grin. "This is the Hypnos Special 03, the Flower. It's the scanning digivice and it's exactly what any expedition to the DigiWorld needs. This thing has a real-time map of the entire DigiWorld, GPS in both worlds, the most up-to-date digidex there is and plenty of room left to grow just in case you scan any new types, a signal tracker that lets you designate as many targets as you want, full power readouts on any digimon you point it at, and it's all done with the holographic display." Henry grabbed Takato's hand, turned it palm-up and pressed a button on the side of the lens. A three-dimensional image of the Earth took shape in front of Takato's face, a tiny red dot hovering over Japan indicating his exact location. "Beat that."

"This is amazing," said Takato. "You did all of this yourself?"

"Well, I had a lot of help," Henry admitted. "A lot of it was scavenged from Shibumi's designs."

"Well still, this stuff is great." Takato turned the Flower off and placed it back in the drawer. "It's a little overwhelming."

Henry laughed. "I know. I guess I just get a little excited about it is all. Hey, have you had lunch yet?"

"I haven't had the chance," Takato shrugged.

"Well what do you say we get out of here?" asked Henry. "We'll grab a bite down the street, relax a little and you can get used to all of this."

"Sounds like a good plan to me," said Takato. "Coming, Suzie?"

"I am starving," said Suzie. "Count me in."

Rika pushed open the doors to her office and grimaced when she saw Chief Cabinet Secretary Orimoto there making himself at home. He turned his gaze from the abstract painting to her right away and smiled.

"Don't you have a job that involves something other than checking in on us?" asked Rika.

"I suppose," said Orimoto, "but this is by far my favorite duty."

"Gee, I never would have guessed."

"I see you got your new boy in today. Do you really think he'll be ready? I mean, it is only thirteen days away."

"More than enough time."

"Glad to hear it, Ms. Nonaka. Of course if you do run into problems I could always call in one of my men in the SDF."

Rika sat down at her desk and got to work on her computer. "I think we can handle this just fine."

"Only offering, my dear. Only offering."

"Well as you can see I'm a bit busy," Rika said impatiently.

"Oh? What are you working on today, I wonder?"

"Shift assignments for October. It feels like this job is more administration than anything else."

"You enjoy field work, I take it. That seems to have been a trait shared by the project's first director."

Rika said nothing, trying to remain focused on her work. Orimoto glanced at her though, and saw the hesitation in her typing. He casually strolled over to her desk and leaned in.

"Ms. Nonaka, if you know where former director Yamaki is, it would be in your best interest to share that information."

This, of course, earned Rika's full attention, or at least enough of it for her to meet Orimoto's gaze head-on. "I thought your people were the ones hiding him."

Orimoto snorted dejectedly and began walking a slow circle around the center of the room. "Hardly. If we knew where to find Mitsuo Yamaki it would be him making those shift assignments."

Rika smiled. "Well what can you expect? If you train a man to be a ghost, you can't be too surprised when he disappears."

It was Orimoto's turn to grimace. "Well somebody knows where he is. Maybe your new boy has some idea."

Rika snickered at that. "If you say so."

"Something amusing?"

"Not really. If I were you though, I wouldn't worry too much about Yamaki."

"I'm afraid I don't have that luxury, my dear." He sat down in the chair at the far corner of the office, right next to the door. "If anything he is an even greater threat than the nuisance you were brought in to deal with. If he were to ever go public with what he knows about Hypnos it would be a disaster for all of us, including you."

"I realize that," said Rika.

"Yet you still just sit there without a care in the world."

"He'd only implicate himself by going public," said Rika, almost sounding bored. "Besides, he's spent his entire adult life behind the scenes. If he wanted something he'd come to you long before he goes public."

"You'll forgive me if I don't share your sense of trust. One would think Yamaki would be easy enough to find with a system that monitors all electronic communication around the world, don't you suppose?"

"Well there's a lot of it to monitor," said Rika. "Besides, he knows the system; he knows how to slip through the cracks."

Orimoto frowned, stood up, walked across the room and leaned over. He put his face right into Rika's field of view. "Then fix the cracks."

She wasn't about to be fazed so easily. "I'll get on it once we've got this situation with the digimon under control."

"And just when will that be, Ms. Nonaka?"

"As soon as you get out of my face and actually let me do my job, sir."

Orimoto hesitated a moment, then slowly stood back up at his full, meager height once again. He smoothed out a wrinkle in his suit and cleared his throat. "I must assume this position has put you under a great deal of stress. If your presence weren't so critical here I would recommend you take some time off."

"I'm fine where I am."

"I should hope so. Unfortunately I have a full schedule for the next two weeks, so I can't be around to make sure everything here is running smoothly. When I arrive on the sixth I'll expect to see some kind of progress."

"Naturally."

"I'm glad we understand one another," he said as the same old smile returned to his face. "Good luck and good day, Ms. Nonaka."

Rika nodded. "Secretary."

As she watched Orimoto turn to leave she wasn't sure if she was more relieved by that or by the news that he would not be back until the day her team was scheduled to go to the Digital World. Of course while he had been an annoyance since the day he'd first met her, he'd never really been up to the challenge of truly getting under her skin. That was a rare ability that only one person had demonstrated so far, and with him hours away and under constant supervision she found herself woefully resilient to the minor irritants of her daily work.

As she had suspected, the thirteen days before the launch passed quickly. It was the busiest she'd seen Hypnos since her instatement. There were constant equipment tests to be run, incessant training drills, supplies for the expedition coming in and needing inspection, procedures to run over with the team, technical instruction on the use of their equipment, and a thousand other daily chores that needed attending to, including tracking digimon as they attempted to bio-emerge. The night before the big event she barely even slept.

**October 6, 2017**

"Morning."

Rika wrinkled her nose. She'd just barely set foot outside her apartment and work was already waiting for her. Henry Wong was leaning against the wall just outside her door, glancing up at her lazily in the early morning sun. He was already dressed for his mission, wearing a dark grey, skin-tight t-shirt with a harness that reached around both shoulders and across his back fitted with pouches for things like his digivice, matches, sunglass, and ammunition (if he weren't too much of a chicken to go in armed.) He was also wearing a sturdy pair of dark green cargo pants with a brown leather belt and hiking boots.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, shifting her weight on her crutches as she stepped the rest of the way outside and closed the apartment door behind her.

"I don't know. I just thought since we're heading the same way we might go together this morning."

"Whatever," said Rika. "Just try not to make me late."

"I'll do my best," he said with a smile.

Rika led the way; even on crutches she had a determined stride, especially when compared to Henry's tranquil gait. She had no problems on the stairs, making Henry wonder whether she even needed to take herself off the mission in the first place. It was that thought that sent his train of thought down a long track.

"Hey, Rika?" he asked as they reached the bottom of the stairwell.

"What?"

"Why are you doing this?"

She paused to look back at him. "Doing what?"

"You know, doing this job."

She continued along toward the sidewalk and the waiting town car. "It's not like I had a lot of choice in the matter."

"Even so, you really care about it," Henry went on. "People don't work so hard at something unless they really want to do it."

"Is it so hard to believe I'm doing this because I care about my job?"

"From you? I don't know. I just expected something more."

"Fine, you caught me," she said impatiently. "It's because I care about what happens to the DigiWorld. I didn't work so hard to save it just to see some politician screw it all up again, okay?"

"Yeah, sure," Henry said nervously. "Just wondering is all."

The rest of the walk to the car they didn't have much to say. Rika thought the matter was dropped, but apparently Henry disagreed and was just waiting for the car to get moving before he picked it up again.

"I think we all have our personal reasons for being here," Henry went on. "Take Takato for instance. He pretty much told me that he's just doing this to make up for his last trip there. I think it's a good idea, getting the chance to make up for mistakes."

"Super," Rika groaned, looking out the window.

"Suzie has reasons too," said Henry. "It's not just about the college credit she's getting for this. She hasn't said so to my face, but I get the feeling she wants to be closer to me and dad. I mean she was always used to having a big family around all the time but since she moved away to school she hasn't had that so much. At least I know I felt a little lonely when I moved out."

"Is this going anywhere?"

"No, not really. I was just thinking out loud, I guess."

"Well maybe you could try thinking a little quieter. I've got enough on my mind as it is."

"Sorry Rika," he apologized. "I just wanted to make sure you were doing this for the right reasons."

"Just what would the right reasons be?"

"I don't know. I guess I was wondering whether you were doing this for the digimon, or for Renamon, or maybe for yourself. I have to admit, I kind of even wondered if you were doing this for Ryo."

Rika felt the vein in her left temple throb. "Don't be an idiot."

"Yeah, I suppose not. You have to admit, though, it would be nice to figure out what happened to him, don't you think? Maybe then we could find a way to help him."

"At least he's out of my hair this way."

"You don't really think that, do you? I mean, I know you like everyone to think you're so tough, but don't you at least want him to get better?"

"Whatever."

Henry sighed. "You know, Rika, sometimes admitting you care about someone makes you look even tougher than denying it."

"So why are _you_ doing this, huh?"

"I don't know," he said, almost to himself. "Sure, I've got plenty of reasons to do this: the challenge of building the digivices, getting to see Terriermon again, maybe just for the nostalgia. In truth though, I just don't feel like I've got the one big reason for being here that everyone else has."

"You're full of it," said Rika. "Since when has anyone needed a real reason for the things they do in life?"

Henry's expression turned to exhaustion. "I should have known you'd take the cynical approach."

"You're like me. You don't have a big reason for doing this beyond the simple fact that it makes you happy. It makes you feel alive, doesn't it?"

"I'm sure there's a reason," said Henry. "I just haven't figured it out yet. Maybe it's just destiny, you know?"

"Or maybe you just need time to make up a good reason so this whole idea of yours will fit together nicely."

Henry looked at Rika, even knowing she wouldn't look back. "Kids must love you. I bet you go to malls around Christmas time and announce that there's no Santa Claus."

"You know, despite what you think I have no problem telling people what I think about them," said Rika, typically unfazed by what Henry had to say. "For instance, I can say that I'm glad to have you leading the team in my place. You really do have what it takes."

Henry smiled. "Thanks."

"Just try not to disappoint me too much," she said with a little smirk.

When they arrived Hypnos was already a swarm of activity. Takato had been up and about since before sunrise, plainly excited despite himself. Of course his being there so early was helped by the fact that he'd been living in one of the offices for the past two weeks. Once Henry and Rika made it in there was no longer any sense in delaying the main event.

Almost the entire Hypnos staff crowded into the basement where the team would be departing from. It was a room with high ceilings and mountains of equipment, much like the tracking room, but it was even larger and brightly lit. In the center was a copper sphere that reached from the floor to the ceiling, brimming with industrial cables that ran to equipment scattered in every corner of the room. There was a single door leading into it that could only be opened or sealed from the outside, and this door was accessed via a grated walkway that went all the way around the sphere. This, as the team had come to know very well over the weeks, was their ticket between worlds.

Of course there was no time to dote on the spectacle of it all: there was plenty of work to be done while the countdown commenced. Suzie was doing the final inspection of the equipment with a pair of technicians, making sure they had everything from the list and that it was all in good condition. She wore an outfit very similar to Henry's, except that her shirt was rose-colored and her pants were tan. Henry helped out with getting the gate sphere ready to go while Takato just tried to stay out of the way. Of all the members of the expedition, Takato was the most casually dressed, wearing jeans and a yellow t-shirt. He wore a harness like Henry and Suzie, but it was covered by his dark brown bomber jacket. His hiking boots at least were regulation, and of course he'd donned his goggles for the occasion.

The sight of one of her team members standing around doing nothing was not one Rika intended to allow. "Takato, get over here!" she shouted to him from across the room.

He immediately sprung into action and jogged across the floor, almost tripping over several cables and bumping into a technician in the process. He finally made it in one piece though. "Reporting for duty!" he said with a salute.

Not sure whether he was serious or if he was mocking her, Rika ignored the salute altogether. "Shouldn't you be doing something useful about now?"

"Like what?" he asked, keeping his voice low.

"I don't know. Find something."

"I think things are pretty much under control, actually," he said as he looked around. "I mean, I've really only been trained for what I'll be doing when we get there."

Rika hated to admit it, but he did have a good point. "Well can't you at least look busy or something?"

"Should I go stand over by Henry then?"

"Better not," Rika said after a moment's thought. "Tell you what, just stand here talking to me. I want to look like I don't have a second to spare in case that snake Orimoto shows up."

"So I'm a distraction, then."

"Pretty much."

"I think I can do that."

"Good."

Neither of them said much for a few seconds, which of course defeated the whole point of trying to look busy. Eager to get to talking about something, Takato asked the first thing that came to mind. "How's the leg?"

"Getting better."

"Glad to hear it."

Rika nodded, though she was looking elsewhere. "So do you think you're ready for this?"

"I don't know. I mean I think I am, but it's been a long time since anyone's been to the DigiWorld. It still seems like things are moving really fast."

"Well you'd better get used to it," said Rika.

Takato sighed. "I know you wanted to be the one to do this. Sorry it didn't work out."

"There's always next time," she said dismissively. "Anyway, at least I got someone I could trust to fill in for me."

Takato looked at her and smiled. "You trust me?"

"I wouldn't have hired you if I didn't," she said, still as unaffected as ever. "Of course for now it matters a lot more that Henry trusts you."

Takato glanced over at Henry. "Yeah, you're right about that."

"Something tells me he'd trust you a lot less if he realized you forgot something as basic as cards though."

Takato's gaze shot back toward Rika. "Huh?"

"The Hypnos Special 01 has a card reader," said Rika. "How much good do you think it will do you if you don't even bring your cards?"

Takato hesitated. "I…guess I hadn't thought about that. I mean I just assumed I probably wouldn't even be using it."

"You'll use it when you need to," said Rika. "When that time comes you'd better be ready."

"Well I hate to say it but I think it's a little late now."

Rika sighed, then reached into her back pocket and pulled out a small leather pouch. She handed it to Takato. "Here."

He took it, opened it and looked inside. "Are these…?"

"My deck," said Rika. "I was planning on using it myself, but I guess I can loan it to you for a bit."

"I don't know what to say."

"A 'thanks' would be nice. After all, you're holding the single best deck ever assembled. Even you could win a tournament or two with this."

Takato smiled. "Thank you, Rika."

"Don't mention it."

"Hey Rika!" Henry called up from where he was working. "We're good to go whenever you are!"

Rika grinned. "Beautiful. Suzie! How's that equipment look?"

Suzie looked up. "It all checks out!" she called out. "I think we're ready!"

"Good to hear it," said Rika. "Takato, get down there and help Suzie load the equipment into the sphere."

"I'm on it," Takato said enthusiastically.

One by one, Takato and Suzie carried the three heavy hiking packs up onto the walkway and into the sphere in the center of the room. So far everything was going according to plan, which actually made Rika a bit nervous. She'd long since learned to distrust situations that seemed too good to be true. It was almost edifying when someone approached her from behind to ruin her day.

"So this is it," said Hideo Orimoto, slowly sliding up beside her. "This is the big day where we find out whether it was all worth it."

"Maybe for you."

"Now, now, let's not be hostile, my dear. We've both waited too long for this to be bitter now."

Takato pushed the door on the sphere closed, then manually spun the wheel until it was sealed completely air-tight. "Good to go!" he called back to Henry.

"Clear the floor, everyone. We're going live," Henry announced.

"Today we write the future," Orimoto whispered as he watched the staff scamper away from the sphere. "Today we begin our rise to the top."

"Whatever," Rika snorted.

"Flooding the chamber with digital particles," said Henry.

"Let's not be modest now, my dear. In a few years these digimon will be a memory and Hypnos will make Japan the most powerful nation in the world. If everything goes as planned I'll be elected as the new Prime Minister just in time to cement our position as the new global superpower."

Rika said nothing back. The way he said it so casually with a completely straight face sent a chill up her spine.

"We've got saturation," said Henry. "Opening the gate in three…two…one… Now."

The sphere in the center of the room started to hum loudly. It shook and there were a few popping noises, but everything remained generally intact. After a few seconds the humming subsided.

"Well?" Orimoto called out to Henry.

"It went through. Still waiting for a signal," he replied.

"That was it?" Takato whispered to Suzie. "I was expecting something a lot more…I don't know, bigger."

"Signal confirmed," Henry went on. "Looks like the equipment arrived exactly where we thought and intact."

There were a few cheers from around the room, and though the Chief Cabinet Secretary wore a satisfied grin, Rika remained stalwart. "Takato, you're up!" she announced.

"Roger!" Takato called out as he eagerly jogged up to the machine.

"This isn't going to work, you know," Rika whispered to Orimoto as they both watched Takato opening the chamber door. "Even the best schemes can't account for everything."

"Don't fight me on this, Ms. Nonaka. As long as you play ball we both get what we want. Refuse and you'll only end up hurting yourself."

"I don't play ball," Rika said impatiently. "I prefer real competition, one-on-one matches. That's the kind of situation where people like me shine and people like you are shown for what you really are."

"Be that way then, Ms. Nonaka," he hissed. "I'll have you replaced by lunch."

Takato stepped inside the chamber. It was bigger than he thought, and coated with copper just like on the outside. It was a perfect sphere, marred only by a single light overhead and the grated floor that started at the same level as the door. He heard the door being closed behind him and turned to watch as it shut. He could hear the locks slowly grinding into place, the noise echoing throughout the chamber. It was just like he'd been told: nothing from outside could get in once the chamber was sealed. No noise, no air, no electromagnetic waves. He was completely isolated from the outside world, just as he needed to be for the digital gate to be created.

Suddenly the chamber began to fill with a murky, white fog: digital particles, just like the ones in a digital field created when a digimon bio-emerged. He quickly pulled his goggles down over his eyes as his field of vision turned completely white. Any second now he should be in a whole other world. He was excited, but also a little nervous; he didn't even realize how fast he'd been breathing until he started feeling dizzy.

The way Henry had explained it to him, the chamber was designed to recreate the bio-emerging process, except in reverse order. In order to create a stable digital field they needed to isolate the particles from everything else, and then use the field to create the gate. Once the gate formed it would immediately drag the field and everything inside it through to the Digital World.

His skin began to tingle and the fog started to shimmer with color. This must be it. He flexed his fingers and tried to loosen his shoulders, still not entirely sure of what to expect. He'd be the first human to ever take this ride, though a few dogs and lab rats had already proven it safe enough. He couldn't help wondering, though, just how safe it could be when they insisted on sending the equipment and humans through individually.

The shimmering lights became colors, shapes, and took on a depth well beyond what the dimensions of the chamber would allow. Takato suddenly felt weightless, unsure of whether his feet were still touching the floor or not. Then he wasn't sure whether his feet were even still attached to his ankles. For a moment he felt nothing, and then his heart dropped into his stomach and he fell through an endless sea of data.

"He's through!" Henry announced excitedly. "Waiting on his signal."

"Henry, get down there with Suzie!" Rika called out. "We can't let you take all the glory."

"As soon as we get Takato's signal."

Rika was about to insist when the ringing of her phone cut in. She answered. "I'm in the middle of something."

"Ma'am, we have a problem," the voice said on the other end. "We've got a wild one incoming."

"Well put a tracer on it and let me know where it tries to bio-emerge."

"Yes ma'am, we've already got the tracer in place, but there's more."

"I'll deal with it later."

"But ma'am, it's—oh no! It's bio-emerging right now!"

"We've got his signal," said Henry. "Looks like he made it through in one piece. I think we're ready to—"

A loud noise from within the chamber cut Henry off mid-sentence. The door bent from its hinges and white fog began to spray out like water from a burst pipe. The metal creaked and groaned loudly as the stress only built.

"What's going on? The chamber should be clear!" Henry shouted.

"Ma'am, can you hear me?" the voice on the other end shouted, but Rika had already dropped the phone. She didn't need it anymore, because she already knew where the wild one was bio-emerging.

"Everyone clear out now!" Rika yelled at the top of her lungs. "Move, move, move!"

"We can't stop yet!" Orimoto barked in her ear.

Suddenly the whole sphere ruptured. Digital particles flooded the entire room as twisted metal heaps were thrown in every direction. Through the blinding white mist, Rika could just barely make out a figure where the chamber had been. It was big, it was dark, and it was angry.

As panic erupted and most of the staff headed for the nearest exits the fog began to clear. Rika caught her first good glimpse of the newly-arrived digimon: DarkTyrannomon. Though it had only just arrived it was already hemorrhaging data from every part of its body. At the rate it was falling apart it couldn't last more than a few minutes, but DarkTyrannomon wasn't about to go down without a fight. It was thrashing about wildly, tearing through everything it touched. When it fixed its gaze on Rika and the Chief Cabinet Secretary, she knew she was in trouble.

DarkTyrannomon opened its mouth and flames flickered against its lips. "Fire Blast!"


	4. Arrival

As it turned out the Hypnos digital gate left a lot to be desired. At first, Takato couldn't even be sure he'd made it to the Digital World at all because he had to keep his eyes closed and his back pressed to the ground to prevent the world from spinning. Though the short trip had left him nauseous and with a splitting headache he was still able to at least hear and feel the world around him.

His fingers tightened around what felt like wet gravel, and though the rocks dug at his back he dared not move for fear of losing what little breakfast he'd had. There was also a noise—regular and soothing—that he couldn't quite identify, at least until he felt a surge of water rush up against him. He immediately jumped to his feet, but was already soaked: the sound, as it turned out, was that of the sea.

"Great, just great," he mumbled, trying to brush some of the water from his backside as his hazy vision began to clear.

His first view was not an impressive one: a rocky beach beneath him, gritty and dark brown, speckled with pools of foamy water and smelling of dead fish and seaweed. As he turned his gaze upward though and shaded his eyes he caught his first view of the sea itself. It was choppy, like there was a storm blowing in. Its uneven surface reflected the bizarre sky of billowing clouds with the Earth in the background, surrounded by a glowing aura in a dozen different shifting colors. Waves of light shot out from it and crisscrossed the sky into the distance, broken only by the vibrant pillars that Takato could still clearly recognize as data streams.

Slowly adjusting to his new environment, Takato turned around on unsteady feet. The beach rose quickly about twenty feet back from the water's edge to a sort of ridge that he couldn't see past. It was there, scattered against the small rise, that he saw the three hiking packs. Though they looked like they'd taken as much of a tumble as he had, they all seemed to be intact with all the equipment safely stored. It was a good thing too, because if there was one thing Takato had no interest in doing at that point it was scouring the beach for lost gear with the tide rising and his body half-soaked. Already the wind was making things a bit on the chilly side for him, so he decided to gather the bags together and have a seat, drying himself off as best as he could while he waited for Henry and Suzie to show up. If their trip was anything like his had been they were going to need a helping hand there when they arrived.

So that was exactly what Takato did. Sitting atop the stacked gear, he did his best to wipe the water from his leather bomber jacket. He'd assumed that at least one of the others would arrive by the time he was done, but he was in for a much longer wait than he had anticipated.

**October 7, 2017**

"No no no no _no_!" Jack yelled as he emerged from the blinding white light to find a pine forest rushing up at him.

Kari shrieked and squeezed his hand even tighter as she took in the sight. With no time to react and nothing to grab hold of they could only flail their limbs and hope for the best. It was just pure luck that Jack's left arm caught on the limb of one of the old pine trees they were falling toward; though hardly a painless experience, it had probably saved both of their lives.

The first branch broke before it could do the same to Jack's arm. The pair plunged further down before Kari got tangled in the limbs, at which point Jack dropped on top of her and proceeded to roll out into the open air again. Kari's grip held firm, but that could only mean that she was coming along for the ride. Jack fell into the branches of the neighboring tree with a loud grunt and Kari fell on top of him with a shout. The impact broke the branches holding them up and they fell yet again, snapping their way through yards of branches before they'd lost enough momentum not to break through the limbs in their path but rather bounced right off them. There was no tree to catch the pair this time, but their luck held out long enough to get them close enough to the ground not to be badly hurt by the last drop.

Jack hit the ground and rolled forward. As the last bit of his momentum was exhausted he stretched out again and fell onto his back. His eyes immediately fixed on the glowing portal in the sky overhead; he had to squint to keep it from blinding him. After a few short seconds of deep breaths he noticed a shadow appearing in the flickering light, and it was growing bigger.

Jack cursed loudly and rolled out of the way just as a small car plowed into the ground next to him. Bits of broken glass, metal and plastic showered over him, forcing him to shield himself with his arms. Even then it wasn't over, for a loud creak from the car told Jack that he had to move again. He dashed to his feet and dove out of the way just as the car fell toward him. With a loud crunch the vehicle's roof was flattened against the forest floor, only a few feet away from the very lucky man.

More debris began to pelt the forest from overhead, prompting Jack and Kari to move away as quickly as they could. More loud crunches, the sounds of pops and snaps and earth-shaking crashes shattered the apparent tranquility of the forested valley. Once they had made it about twenty yards from where they began though the gate overhead closed up, allowing the pair to drop to the ground after a very exciting few minutes.

"Are you okay?" Jack gasped out before he'd even caught his breath.

Kari coughed. "Yeah."

The way she had been walking on her ankle told Jack otherwise, but he wasn't ready to press the issue yet. He rubbed the back of his hand against his forehead, and found it smeared with blood when he looked at it; that one probably happened during the fall through the tree. "Your ankle…" he panted.

Kari rubbed it with her hand. It didn't feel like anything was broken and it didn't seem to be swelling or discolored. "I think I just twisted it." She blew a strand of hair out of her face. As she traced her hand up her leg she found dozens of minor scratches from the tree branches. Her clothes were looking a bit torn up as well.

Jack tried to roll the arm with which he'd caught the first tree, immediately regretting it. He let out a groan and grabbed it with his right hand. Pain shot up and down the whole thing at the slightest motion. Like Kari his exposed skin was scratched badly. His clothes, too, shouted the evidence of the fall loud and clear, torn from the branches and muddied by the landing. He looked up at Kari and noticed a red spot on her cheek. "What about that?" he asked, pointing at it.

Kari's hand immediately went to her face. She recoiled, but then gingerly touched it again. "I hit it on that tree," she said. Moving her hand made her realize that her wrist hurt as well, though that was probably from the strain of holding so tightly to her husband.

Finally having caught his breath, Jack eased onto his back, still holding his injured arm. Even when he kept it absolutely still it was throbbing with pain. He closed his eyes and bit down to keep himself focused.

"What happened back there?" Kari asked as she finally started to look around.

"That is a really good question," Jack said through gritted teeth.

"The last thing I remember is Tai," Kari went on. "He tried to grab us but he missed, and then we were just here."

"A hundred feet in the air with no place to go but straight down," said Jack.

"This must have something to do with Thunderbirmon," Kari said as she looked around for the rogue digimon among the trees and in the clear skies.

"Of course it does," said Jack. "You know, most people go their whole lives without having to deal with this sort of thing. What lottery in hell did we win?"

Kari ignored Jack and rested her chin on her knuckles. "If this is because of Thunderbirmon then we might be in the Digital World."

"But how?" he asked. "The gate's been sealed for almost fifteen years."

"Tell that to Thunderbirmon," she shot back.

Jack sighed. "Maybe. Or maybe we just got dumped in the woods, or maybe we wound up in Switzerland, or maybe we're in some whole other world we've never even been to before. There's no way to know."

"Only one way to be sure," Kari said with a little smile. "We should look around for someone: if we find a human we're in our world, and if it's a digimon we're in the DigiWorld."

"Sounds like a plan to me," said Jack, reopening his eyes. "Personally I don't care where we are so long as we're not too far from a hospital."

"Yeah, let's hope so. Come on now, sit up. Let me have a look at that scrape."

"In a minute," he groaned.

"We can't go wandering around the forest all beaten and bloody." She tore and already loose piece of cloth from the base of her dress and started to dab at the nasty scrape on Jack's forehead.

**October 6, 2017**

It had been an hour, a full hour. His clothes were mostly dry, he'd gathered up all the equipment and double-checked that everything was fine, he'd scouted around the area both to get a feel for where he was and to look for his companions' arrival. It had been an hour and Takato was still alone, quietly freaking out on the beach.

He cupped his hands around his mouth. "Hello!" he shouted for the fiftieth time without response. "Is anyone out there?"

Things were quickly turning desperate. Sure, he'd felt just fine with the idea of coming to the Digital World with a full team, but now that he was actually there and his team was nowhere to be found, things were feeling just a bit too familiar. "Somebody answer me!" he yelled.

Again he got nothing. It was infuriating. He walked back to the bags at a brisk pace, unzipped the one on top, dug around inside and shortly thereafter pulled out the Beak. He held it up and fiddled with the controls until he had it set to contact Hypnos.

"What's going on out there, guys?" he asked, trying to hide the panic in his voice.

There was no response from his digivice, nothing but static. He checked again to make sure it was working the way it was supposed to and everything was set just right.

"What's the deal up there, Rika?"

Nothing.

"Hah-hah, very funny guys." Takato found himself talking faster than usual. "You got me. I know you can hear me. Just drop it and stop messing around, okay?"

Not a sound. Takato sighed. "Great, just great. Way to go, Henry. Just send me here with a digivice that doesn't even work. Just perfect." He stuffed the Beak into the pocket on his shoulder-strap designed for just that purpose then tore into the second bag. He dug through this one just like the other, albeit a bit more frantically, and after a few moments he let out an excited "Aha!" as he removed the Flower from inside.

Takato eagerly slipped the unusual digivice onto his hand and turned it on. He impatiently waited for it to warm up as he held his hand out, palm up. After a few seconds a holographic image of the entire Digital World took shape before him. It wasn't exactly as he imagined: instead of being a perfect globe it was more like half of a globe. The outer edges were rough, blocky bits that broke up bit by bit while at the top of the hemisphere it rapidly dipped into a long chasm. Based on his baking experience, the only image Takato could conjure up to describe the overall look of it was that of an upside-down Bundt pan.

"Alright, let's see," Takato mumbled to himself, trying to remember just how to work the device. "Um… Hypnos Special 03. Command. Search: humans."

The device in his hand clicked, whirred, and beeped disapprovingly. Apparently he didn't get the command quite right.

"Oh come on, what did I leave out?" Takato shouted in frustration.

Since it was obvious the Flower wasn't going to just tell him, Takato once again plunged shoulder-deep into the bag and felt around for the manual Henry had so kindly included for his pride and joy.

"I know it's in here somewhere!" Takato barked as he shoved his head in as well. "Don't screw with—oh! There it is."

The smile returned to Takato's face as he emerged with the manual in hand and flipped to the table of contents. Unfortunately his search was only just beginning. Over the next ten minutes he realized that while Henry might have a knack for engineering, writing about how to use it had escaped him. It wasn't until Takato had managed to get the display to stop blinking twelve o'clock that he finally flipped to the page he'd been looking for.

"Ha! Here we are: searching. No wait, that's searching by category… Searching for designated targets… Searching alphabetically? Come on, Henry. How can someone be so smart and still sound so dumb? Wait, here we go: search commands."

Takato read over the instructions twice before he could really follow what he needed to do then he held his palm out again and took another shot at it. "Hypnos Special 03. Command. Search Digital World: life forms, human. Execute."

The digivice clicked again and whirred to life. After a few seconds it gave an approving tone and a red dot appeared on the map before his eyes.

"Zoom in," he said. The device buzzed, eliciting a frustrated groan from Takato. "Zoom to target."

The hologram zoomed in on the red dot until he could make out the fine details on the terrain surrounding it. It was on a coastal area in the main southern continent, not far from the eastern quadrant's borders. He looked closely at it then looked up at his own surroundings. He groaned. "Command. Overlay current location. Execute."

Sure enough a second red dot appeared in the image directly over the one that was already there. "Fantastic, I've found myself," he mumbled. "Command. Toggle: search result counter. Execute."

A line of text appeared over the map in front of him, spelling out: "1 result found."

Takato sighed and rubbed his forehead with his free hand. "Great, just great," he grumbled. "Here I am, once again the only human in the whole world. Talk about déjà vu."

Takato hung his head, trying to decide what to do. "It's not exactly like I can do this whole mission on my own," he said to himself. "It doesn't exactly look like I can get hold of anyone back at Hypnos either with this stupid Beak on the fritz. So what now?"

He looked up again at the crashing waves and rough seas. Aside from that, everything else was quiet. The whole world seemed so calm that it was almost mocking his aggravation.

The Takato looked back at the digivice on his hand and he struck on an idea that had been rolling around in his head for a few days. He snickered a little to himself before speaking. "Hypnos Special 03. Command. Search Digital World: life forms, Guilmon. Execute."

Again the digivice clicked and whirred. The previous results faded from the screen and a few seconds passed. Then a few more seconds passed. Just when Takato was getting tired of waiting the device beeped and the map was flooded with red dots. Takato's face fell as he read a line of text overlaying the image: "188 results found."

"Well so much for that idea," he said bitterly. "I guess I could always try the nearest one and work my way out from there."

Takato stood up again and kicked a rock out to sea. A biting cold breeze blustered past, piercing right through his still-damp clothes and making him shiver. Whatever he was going to do he'd need to do it fast before nightfall set in and he wound up even worse off. Even with all the camping gear he had stuffed away in the three bags he knew he would be better off finding someplace to stay that had four real walls and didn't require him to set it up.

So Takato sat back down again with the manual. Maybe it was too much to hope for that the digivice could search for hotels in the Digital World, but he wouldn't know for sure until he tried.

**October 7, 2017**

"I don't think we're on Earth anymore," Kari announced as the pair made their way through the rain, she leaning on him to stay off her ankle and he holding his injured arm to keep it still.

"What gives you that idea?" he asked her.

"Oh, I don't know," she said. "Maybe it's the rain falling upward."

Jack nodded. "It does seem a bit odd."

The rain was indeed rising from the ground and flying up into the cloudless blue sky. Naturally this gave the pair more than a few problems when it came to figuring out just how to stay out of the rain.

"You know, I don't think I've ever known it to rain in the DigiWorld," said Jack.

"Me neither," said Kari. "At least not often. If this is what it's like though, I think we should be thankful for that."

"No argument here," said Jack.

Jack eased Kari off his shoulder as they approached a ditch in their path and went on ahead to check it over. Looking into it, he noted that it was about five or six feet deep; the sides were steep and the bottom was quite boggy, filled with decaying plant matter and murky water. He looked to his right, then his left in hopes of seeing a means of getting across, but there didn't seem to be any fallen trees or natural bridges to make the crossing an easier one on Kari's injured leg. What he did notice, however, was that on just the other side of the ditch there was no rain at all.

"This world definitely has a glitch," he announced as he returned to his wife.

"What is it?" she asked, not standing up yet.

"We're going to have to cross this ditch if we want to keep going in this random direction. It might be a little tricky, but at least the weather will get nicer."

Kari looked toward the depression nervously, then at her ankle. "Do you think you could carry me?"

Jack looked back, then at her again. "I'm not sure."

"Come on," she said. "It wasn't _that_ long ago that you carried me over the threshold."

"Well yeah," Jack shrugged. "Of course I also had two working arms at the time."

"Well don't worry about it," she said. "I can make it."

Jack sighed. "No, no. Either way one of us is going to be uncomfortable; I may as well be the one to grin and bear it."

"You're sure?"

"Yeah, I'm sure. Besides, we're not getting anywhere just standing around and talking about it, are we?"

"Alright, if you're really okay with it."

Jack reached down to help Kari to her feet. Just as she moved to lean on him the strangest thing happened: the rain stopped. That is not to say the rain was over, but rather the rain quite literally stopped: every last drop ceased moving up all at once and just hung in the air. Jack and Kari both paused to stare at the thousands of little droplets hovering around them on all sides. After a few seconds they turned to each other and without so much as a word between them they agreed to move along as quickly as possible.

"Well, here we go," said Jack as he and Kari stood at the precipice. "Ready?"

Kari tried to position herself against his strong arm so that he would have an easier time picking her up. She nodded. "Ready."

He placed his weakened left arm at her back with his palm to her neck, and then he bent down, placed his right arm around her legs and hoisted her up in one motion. It would have gone perfectly, had his arm not instantly given out like it was made from saltines. Kari flipped right over backwards, yelping as she landed on her head.

"Kari! Are you okay?"

She rubbed the back of her head with a grimace. "Just lovely."

Jack smiled sheepishly. "Sorry about that. I think we should try a different way."

She smiled back and extended a hand. "Just help me up."

A few seconds later they stood facing one another. Each took a deep breath.

"Ready?" asked Jack.

Kari nodded. "Ready."

Jack bent down slightly, grabbing Kari around the waist with his good arm as she put both arms over his shoulder and pulled herself up. With a mighty heave, Jack hoisted her up over his shoulder, and although he looked a little on the wobbly side he adjusted his balance soon and was ready to get underway. "Right then."

Jack carefully tested his footholds as he slowly descended into the ditch, making quite sure every slimy rock his foot fell upon was completely secure before dedicating himself to it and moving on to the next step. For such a small journey it was definitely an arduous one. Just getting down one side took several minutes. By the time they were ready to head up the other side, Jack was feeling exhausted and bogged down by the mud quickly filling his shoes.

"Quick question," he said breathlessly. "If I gave you a boost, do you think you'd be able to pull yourself up?"

"If I can find something to grab onto," said Kari. "It's not like my arms are giving me any problems."

"Alright then," Jack nodded. "Let's try it."

Positioning his back towards the wall so that Kari could see over the edge, he did his best to push her up to get a good view of the other side. She stretched out to grab the ledge and pull herself up, but with all the mud and tangled plant-life it was almost impossible to get a decent grip. She looked around for something more solid and her gaze caught on a large rock. It was slick with water and muck but it looked stable enough, so she stretched out and grabbed hold.

"I think I've got it," Kari announced.

"Take your time," said Jack as he tried to keep his face from being kicked in Kari's attempt to wiggle ever upwards.

Once Kari was sure she had a good grip she pulled with all her might. As it turned out the rock was rooted quite firmly in the soft earth; unfortunately, the earth itself wasn't nearly as solid. As she pulled, the rock and dirt shifted toward her, bringing a small mudslide down onto Jack from overhead. He cursed loudly as mud and weeds filled his shirt and jacket and small rocks pelted his head and neck. Still, his stance remained resolute enough to let Kari finish pulling her way up onto the ledge above.

"Are you okay?" she called down as soon as she was safe.

"Yeah, yeah," he grumbled. "Think you can give me a little help getting up there?"

Kari leaned over the edge and smiled down at him. "Sure," she smiled, offering him both hands.

He grabbed hold with his good arm, keeping the injured one stiffly at his side. As he began to find footholds he looked up at her and smiled back. "I don't know what I'd do without you."

**October 6, 2017**

Takato stopped trudging along for the fifth time in as many minutes; his plan was not working. Sure, three bags for three people was a great idea. Everyone could help to carry the things they'd all need to survive. Unfortunately, with three bags and only one person it had gotten a little bit trickier.

At first, Takato wanted to see if he could try to strap all of them together and carry them on his back. After he fell over backwards and was unable to stand up again like some large, pitiful turtle he had to give up on that plan, due to the fact that the three bags together weighed more than he did.

Next he though he'd try to balance things out by strapping one bag to his back, another to his front, and carrying the third. The problem with this idea arose almost as soon as he tried putting the bag on his chest: it was impossible for him to see anything other than green canvas with the tall hiking pack in front of his face. He tried to compensate by turning his head to the side and sidling down the beach with the third bag in tow, but his gate was so unsteady, his balance so thrown off, and the terrain so precarious, that another fall was inevitable and swiftly put an end to his second scheme.

More determined than ever, Takato's third and most recent plot had proven his most successful yet. Now only wearing a single pack on his back, he dragged the other two along behind him, one in each hand. While this did work in the strictest sense, it also brought to light two problems. The first was that carrying so much weight over rough terrain, even if he could do it, was incredibly tiring on the unfortunate tamer and forced him to stop frequently. With the nearest town being twelve miles up the shoreline (from what he'd been able to piece together from his map) he might never make it at the pace he was going. The second problem he encountered, which became clear only upon his most recent stop, was that dragging the packs along a rocky beach was wreaking havoc on them. Even in the short distance he'd covered they had already begun to show signs of wear and tear. It seemed he once again needed a new plan.

Dropping all the bags in a pile, Takato cleared a spot on the ground to take a seat. After popping his back and rolling his neck he leaned back to look over the situation. "Maybe I can make a few trips," he wondered out loud. "I could take one or two packs with me and then come back tomorrow for the rest."

He sighed. Saying it out loud made him realize it probably wasn't the best idea. Even if he did find someplace safe to stash the extra equipment he'd probably need to make three whole trips in order to carry it all. He didn't even know if there really was a town up the coast and whether or not it would be a good place to call home while he figured out what to do. If it wasn't and he had to move on then he'd have to make multiple trips again. No, that idea stunk.

"I guess I do have a lot of supplies," he said to himself. "I could just set up camp and wait here to figure out what to do."

He looked around. The beach and everything around it was very exposed. Even if there weren't wild digimon to worry about he'd still have to contend with the elements all on his own. If he didn't somehow manage to get in contact with Hypnos by the time his supplies started running low then he'd wind up right back in his current situation.

"Besides, I've still got a job to do here," he mused. "I've got to find out why so many digimon are trying to bio-emerge and hopefully stop it. I need to find Guilmon too, and try to find some way to help Ryo if I can. I can't do any of it without being mobile so staying put or lugging everything around with me is not going to work."

He bit his lower lip. It was slowly dawning on him what he'd need to do if he didn't plan to just sit on his hands and wait for rescue. "Guess I need to figure out what all I don't need to carry with me."

Although Takato had a pretty good idea of what was in all of the bags, and perhaps even because of that knowledge, he got a sinking feeling in his stomach. The sheer volume of things he'd have to sort through was staggering; it would probably take him hours to get through it all.

"All the more reason to get started," he said, sounding resolute. He cracked his knuckles and grabbed the closest pack: his own. This one would be the easiest to sort out, since he'd packed it only a few hours earlier.

"Clothes: I'll need those," he said as he unzipped the largest pouch. "Soap, toothpaste, shampoo, shaving cream, razor, toothbrush, hmm… I should probably hang on to those. Sunscreen?" He looked skyward, shading his eyes. "Yeah, that's a necessity. Spare shoes: I guess they're handy, but they're pretty heavy and take up a lot of room. Maybe I'll be better of just taking care of the ones I'm wearing." He tossed his extra shoes aside.

By the time he'd finished the first pocket he was starting to make a little bit of room for the necessities as a small mound of non-essentials built up behind him, beginning with the shoes and also including a few pens, pencils and pads of paper, a compass that evidently wouldn't work in the Digital World, a small collection of comic books that Takato kept as a guilty pleasure, a floppy hat, a pair of swimming trunks and a small umbrella. It hadn't made a lot of room, but every little bit helped, even if he did hate to just toss aside his possessions.

When he got to the next pocket things got more interesting. "There it is!" he said, grabbing the Egg as soon as he saw it. "This I'm definitely going to need." He rubbed a smudge from the digivice's display and holstered it much like the Beak. He continued to root around the more interesting items he'd packed. "Flashlight, can-opener, I could afford to lose this music player I guess. Digital camera: that's actually just expensive enough to hold onto. Swiss army knife, which as it turns out actually has a can-opener on it anyway. Of course I don't know how well some of these other doodads work or even what they're for. Canteen, poker cards I don't need, wristwatch that I'm not wearing on my wrist for some reason, jeez this is a lot of stuff. Hey where'd I pack the tent? Was it in this pocket or did I stuff it in with my sleeping bag?"

Takato sighed. He was barely even getting started and it was slow going. Still, he kept right on working at it. Eventually he managed to get through all three bags, clearing out the things he didn't need from his own and picking out the things he did need from the others. Of course the things he needed from the other bags wasn't going to fit into his own, so he had to find a way to clear even more stuff out, which cost him a sweater, a pair of pants and a couple pairs of underwear among other things.

From Suzie's pack he collected the first-aid kit, cooking supplies including everything he'd need to make a fire except the wood, an armful of canned and packaged food, and a roll of toilet paper: all the necessities of life. He also grabbed the manual for the Flower, which he could tell he was going to need, but opted out of taking any of the ammunition clips she'd packed.

Henry's pack contained more electronic equipment than anything else, and since Takato had no idea what most of it did it was pretty easy to decide against keeping it with him. What did catch Takato's eye, however, was Henry's well-stocked supply of batteries, which he assumed might come in handy with the various gadgets he was doomed to carry around with him. He also decided it would be a good idea to grab a second canteen and on closer inspection it seemed that Henry had done a better job of packing for a rough trip, which is how Takato wound up adding a couple pairs of good hiking socks, a scarf, and a durable pair of gloves to his own inventory.

After some more fine-tuning and tight-packing, Takato did manage to get everything he needed mostly into one pack, though the tent was sticking out awkwardly, he had a canteen slung over each shoulder and it was a little heavier than he'd been hoping. Still, he knew there was a good chance he might need to come back for the rest of the bags (even if only to avoid a beating from Henry and Suzie for leaving their clothes and expensive electronics to rot on some beach) so he set about looking for a place to stash them. He settled on a small crevice in a hill well back from the water; after placing the bags there and covering them with rocks the only thing left to do was log this exact spot into the Flower. Thus having his buried treasure marked with an X on his own little map he finally felt like he was ready to get going again.

"Not a moment too soon," he said as he glanced at his wristwatch. "I'd better move it if I'm going to get there before nightfall." He let out a little sigh, knowing all the work he'd done was only leading up to a brutal hike.

**October 7, 2017**

"Hide!" Jack whispered harshly as he grabbed Kari around the waist and pulled her behind a tree.

She started to say something, but caught herself in time. Instead she crouched down low, perking her ears up and listening very closely. Jack was right; something was drawing near. "What is it?" she whispered very softly.

He looked around for a moment before moving, then placed his mouth next to her ear and cupped his hand around it. "Don't know," he said quietly. "Just wait and watch."

Kari nodded wordlessly, knowing that sometimes a little discretion could save a lot of running. Since they were in no shape for the latter, the former was clearly the best choice.

Apparently the approaching group didn't see things quite the same way; they were anything but quiet. Though the pair couldn't make out what was being said there were at least three voices talking at once. They didn't seem to be in much of a hurry at least, casually sauntering down an old, overgrown path. Jack and Kari cautiously peeked out to see if they could catch a glimpse of anything through the thick undergrowth, but they caught no more than a glimpse of a large, swaggering body before they had to withdraw again.

"Keep an eye out," said a gruff, ancient voice. "If this is Asmodemon's doing his cronies might be anywhere in this valley by now."

"My sensors are not detecting any nearby hostiles," said a second voice, this one mechanical and vaguely reminiscent of Tentomon.

"I trust my gut a lot more than your sensors, rust-bucket," said the first voice. "It's tellin' me there's trouble about."

"Begging your pardon, but I am not a bucket of rust," the second voice interjected. "While I can indeed be useful for carrying things I am not a bucket. As for being rusty I hardly think a little—"

"Oh put a sock in it already," said a third voice, this one a folksy drawl. "I reckon if there _were_ any evil digimon sneakin' around these parts, y'all jabberin' would tell 'em and the whole valley right where we are."

Kari's face lit up; she would recognize that loveable inflection anywhere.

"But I don't have any socks," the second voice said promptly.

Before either of the other two could respond, they caught sight of two figures emerging from the woods just ahead. Though they immediately tensed up, they relaxed after a second of seeing the smiling faces of two humans.

"Armadillomon!" Kari called out in relief, waving her right hand overhead.

Armadillomon cocked his head to the side. "Well I'll be an Etemon's uncle. I think we found us somethin' a lot more interestin' than a few evil digimon."

"They would appear to be humans," said Armadillomon's Guardromon companion. "Either that or my optical array may require maintenance."

"No, they look human enough to me too," said the third member of their party. He was a powerful-looking digimon, his form being almost identical to that of a very large bear. He walked on all fours and from tail to snout must have measured twenty feet at least. His hair was almost completely black, save for a large patch on his back that was snow white; when viewed from overhead this patch of white fur was shaped exactly like the crest of reliability, the length of it stretching from the base of his neck to his tailbone, the cross-bar wrapping down his sides and the four triangles in the corners placed upon his shoulders and hips. His face was somewhat unusual for a bear though, his black hair being very long and thick on both the top of his head and along his jaw line. While the hair atop his head did hide his face somewhat, it could still be seen that he was missing his right eye. The socket was badly scarred and long since closed off, but the remaining eye shone a piercing forest green.

"Armadillomon, it's me!" Kari called out, still waving. "It's Kari!"

Armadillomon cocked his head the other way. "Kari? Well shucks howdy, would you look at that."

The two groups slowly approached one another while already exchanging pleasantries.

"What're you doin' around these parts?" Armadillomon asked, approaching the humans at a gallop.

"That's exactly what we were wondering," said Jack.

"We're a little lost right now," Kari admitted. "It's been kind of a rough day."

"Well shoot, looks like it," said Armadillomon. "Have a seat and we'll have a look-see."

"Easy now," Jack said as he helped ease Kari to the ground before sitting down himself as well, once again cradling his injured arm.

"C'mon over, fellas," Armadillomon called back to his companions. "I know this here little lady." Then he turned back to Kari. "Though if you don't mind me sayin' so, you ain't so little no more. You don't look a thing like you used to."

"Well of course not," Kari giggled. "I grew up."

"Well if you ask me it looks like you went and got yourself digivolved. If it ain't too forward, I'd like to say that I think it turned out pretty well."

Kari smiled at him. "Thank you. You're looking pretty good too, actually. Did you grow?"

"Aw shucks," Armadillomon blushed. "I might've added a few inches here and there."

"A few inches?" asked Jack. "I'd say more like a foot; you're like a tank!"

"Mighty kind of ya to say, stranger," Armadillomon said with a nod and a smile.

Kari giggled again. "You remember Jack, don't you?" she asked.

Armadillomon squinted at Jack and scratched his head. "Really?" he asked. "Shoot, I'm sorry about that. I don't hardly recognize ya. I remember you bein' such a scrawny thing."

Jack shrugged. "Thanks?"

"On closer inspection, they are definitely humans," Guardromon announced as he leaned in uncomfortably close to Kari, forcing her to lean back quite a bit.

"That's…great," she said, somewhat surprised.

"Now where are my manners?" asked Armadillomon. "This here is Guardromon, and that over yonder is Ursamon."

"Salutations!" Guardromon said enthusiastically.

Ursamon only nodded, still keeping his distance.

"Ursamon, this here is Jack and Kari," said Armadillomon. "I reckon you've heard of the DigiDestined."

"Yes, I know of them," said Ursamon. "I take it the two of you were behind that disturbance."

"Disturbance?" asked Kari.

"A light appeared over the forest to the south," said Ursamon.

"Yeah, that sounds like us alright," said Jack. "Not that we were behind it; we just hitched a ride."

Ursamon nodded. "Good. Now that we've solved that we should return to camp quickly."

"Mind if we tag along?" asked Kari.

"Yeah, we can't just go leavin' my friends in a lurch like this," Armadillomon insisted.

Ursamon sighed. "I suppose not. Besides, we can't have humans running wild now can we?" The way he smiled at that remark left Jack and Kari somewhat uncertain, but since he was a friend of Armadillomon's they knew he couldn't be a bad guy.

"Don't fret none," said Armadillomon. "We'll get you two patched up right away when we get back to the camp. Ya'll be right as rain by mornin'."

"Glad to hear it," said Kari as she gingerly stood up again.

"Now that ankle don't look too good," Armadillomon said in a concerned tone. "Guardromon, give the little lady a hand why don't ya."

"Here you are, Miss," Guardromon said as he quickly presented Kari with his detached left limb.

"I mean let her ride on yer shoulder ya ninny!" said Armadillomon.

It was at just about that time that Takato was discovering a sense of direction in the Digital World.

"Yes!" he shouted after reading the text before his eyes. "Three results found! I knew Henry wasn't going to leave me here all alone. Looks like he had a hard time finding the place though. What are they doing all the way over there?"

After more than a day of waiting around in a thinly populated coastal hamlet, Takato finally had human company in the Digital World: two of them. Unfortunately, the digivice gave their location across the sea on the large central continent of the eastern quadrant. Still, they were there and that was the best news he'd had all day. Now the only question he had to answer was how he was going to get there.


End file.
